What if, instead of fixating on what’s left on your bucket list, you created an “anti-bucket list” of things you no longer need to do? This perspective-shifting idea comes from award-winning filmmaker Sky Bergman, who has gathered 3,000 years of collective wisdom from adults 75+ on how to live well.
As milestone birthdays like 70 approach, many of us wonder if we’ll have enough time to accomplish everything we desire. Bergman’s documentary Lives Well-Lived and book Lives Well-Lived Generations challenge our youth-obsessed culture by showcasing vibrant, purposeful aging. Her research identifies four essential elements of a well-lived life: purpose, community, resilience, and positivity. Purpose evolves, especially after retirement, when professional identity shifts. The key is finding what truly brings joy—whether it’s making mozzarella for your daughter’s deli or volunteering to teach English.
Bergman challenges ageist limitations with inspiring examples like her grandmother, who started working out at 80, and Ernestine Shepard, who became a champion bodybuilder in her 50s after losing loved ones to diabetes. These stories prove that age doesn’t define what’s possible.
Bergman also highlights the power of intergenerational connections in combating isolation. Her monthly potluck dinners, bringing together women from ages 20 to 90, dissolve ageist divides and create a meaningful community.
Ready to embrace aging on your own terms? It’s time to create your anti-bucket list—letting go of what no longer serves you while embracing purpose, connection, and joy. Listen now to start redefining what’s possible.
Bio
Sky Bergman is an accomplished, award-winning photographer. "Lives Well Lived" is Sky's directorial debut. The film is based upon her book "Lives Well-Lived Generations".
Her fine art work is included in permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library of France) in Paris. Her book, The Naked & The Nude: Images from the Sculpture Series, includes an introduction by Hèléne Pinet, curator of photography at the Rodin Museum in Paris. She has shot book covers for Random House and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., and magazine spreads that appeared in Smithsonian, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, Reader's Digest, and Archaeology Odyssey.Sky Bergman is a Professor of Photography and Video at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA.
