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[00:00.41] ‘Life is for living’, according to the well-used expression: What we choose to do is up to us.

[00:09.17] That may not be completely true, but there is no harm in dreaming about what we’d like to achieve in our life.

[00:17.94] Many of us write a list of things we’d like to do before we die – often called a bucket list.

[00:25.64] Bucket lists have been called ‘the greatest hits of your life’ and have helped some people overcome anxiety which would have stopped them following their dreams.

[00:37.33] Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with exciting and new experiences – from skydiving to swimming with sharks – the list is unlimited.

[00:49.55] This is something the BBC radio programme All In The Mind has been looking at.

[00:55.66] It heard from a blogger called Annette White who said she made a promise to live her bucket list which “continuously pushes the comfort zone to its limits and beyond it.”

[01:07.87] Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help you plan your life and give you focus.

[01:15.31] When the BBC reporter Helen Fawkes knew she was suffering from incurable ovarian cancer, she took comfort in drawing up a bucket list -although she called it her ‘list for living’ because these were things for making the most of life.

[01:33.37] Sadly, she was not able to achieve all of her 50 things before she died at the age of 45.

[01:42.93] Creating a bucket list can certainly give us hope, but some people have argued it can be used as a coping strategy to try to control something uncontrollable – death.

[01:57.55] Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was “not really in favour of bucket lists… [they] take you away from the chance to be spontaneous.”

[02:09.23] It’s probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else’s idea of the perfect life.

[02:16.40] And also, following a fixed list of goals makes you less impulsive - your aims and wishes might change as you approach the day when you finally kick the bucket.

[02:30.21] But why not at least dream of what we would like to do? Why not reach for the stars, even if we only reach the sky?

[02:39.25] Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so maybe we should live for today.