But as Harvard University happiness researcher Arthur C. Brooks<\/a> has found, in his studies as well as his own experience, that happiness doesn\u2019t follow that formula. \u201cIt took me too long to figure this one out,\u201d Brooks told podcast host Tim Ferris<\/a>, explaining why he uses a \u201creverse bucket list\u201d to live a happier life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brooks shared that on his birthday, he would always make a list of his desires, ambitions, and things he wanted to accomplish\u2014a bucket list. But when he was 50, he found his bucket list from when he was 40 and had an epiphany: \u201cI looked at that list from when I was 40, and I\u2019d checked everything off that list. And I was less<\/em> happy at 50 than I was at 40.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a social scientist, he recognized that he was doing something wrong and analyzed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a neurophysiological problem and a psychological problem all rolled into one handy package,\u201d he said. \u201cI was making the mistake of thinking that my satisfaction would come from having more. And the truth of the matter is that lasting and stable satisfaction, which doesn\u2019t wear off in a minute, comes when you understand that your satisfaction is your haves divided by your wants\u2026You can increase your satisfaction temporarily and inefficiently by having more, or permanently and securely by wanting less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brooks concluded that he needed a \u201creverse bucket list\u201d that would help him \u201cconsciously detach\u201d from his worldly wants and desires by simply writing them down and crossing them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know that these things are going to occur to me as natural goals,\u201d Brooks said, citing human evolutionary psychology. \u201cBut I do not want to be owned by them. I want to manage them.\u201d He discussed moving those desires from the instinctual limbic system to the conscious pre-frontal cortex by examining each one and saying, \u201cMaybe I get it, maybe I don\u2019t,\u201d but crossing them off as attachments. \u201cAnd I\u2019m free\u2026it works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I write them down, I acknowledge that I have the desire,\u201d he explained on X. \u201cWhen I cross them out, I acknowledge that I will not be attached to this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea that attachment itself causes unhappiness is a concept found in many spiritual traditions, but it is most closely associated with Buddhism. Mike Brooks, PhD, explains<\/a> that humans need healthy attachments, such as an attachment to staying alive and attachments to loved ones, to avoid suffering. But many things to which we are attached are not necessarily healthy, either by degree (over-attachment) or by nature (being attached to things that are impermanent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"bucket](\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/origin-8.gif\")
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