We’re constantly bombarded by messages that we should seize the day, live life to the fullest, and that we can do and be absolutely anything that we want. It’s either empowering or emotionally exhausting depending on your point of view. One of the problems that lie at the core of this ‘go-gettism’ philosophy is that there often isn’t much guidance behind the energetic urging to not waste a single moment more and embrace an adrenaline-filled, happy-go-lucky lifestyle.

That means that it’s up to every single person to try and figure out what they really want to do, whether it’s professionally or during their spare time. And that can lead to some very naive mistakes. Maybe you realized that bungee jumping really isn’t for you. Perhaps you learned the hard way that camping isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be if you don’t have a tiny Aragorn living inside your heart. Or maybe you got burned after trusting your colleagues too much.

Reddit users opened up about their worst experiences and mistakes in a brutally honest thread full of worldly wisdom. Scroll down for the anti-bucket list of things that people will never ever do again.

#1

Work in a covid unit. It was worth it in the beginning when I felt like I was trying to rescue victims of an unknown enemy while risking my life to buy precious time for a game-changing miracle. However, parts of me have died over the last two years. The patients that come into my ER now days have turned up their noses at a vaccine that many have died in my presence waiting for. The ones dying of covid are shouting at me, hitting me, threatening me, and trying to pull the PPE off of my face because they don’t think that covid is real. I’ve had to drive past protesters on my way home from a shift where I had to take an eight year old off of life support because her unvaccinated parents gave the virus to her. I don’t even feel sad anymore when a patient passes because now I have a ventilator open for at least one of the next three patients circling the drain.

I’m tired of getting yelled at by antivaxers and their families. I’m tired of risking my life for people who won’t do the bare minimum, like taking a jab, to live.

I’ve spent my life trying to help people, but no one is worth it anymore. You win. I’m done. I regret it all. Everything I ever stood for is dead. The only thing that matters to me is my dog. She will never understand why I never came home, but she has widespread cancer, so that won’t be long either.

Image credits: BatEvening9898

#2

Settling for a relationship knowing you are not really happy.
Never. Again.

Image credits: Selthix

#3

Buy clothes that don’t fit well in hopes that “someday” I’ll lose weight and be comfortable in them. Just size up, damn it, and be comfortable now!

Image credits: cheytown88

The anti-bucket list is the complete opposite of the bucket list, a list of all the things that a person hopes to do in life.

They say that the best teacher is cold, hard experience. And there’s no denying that trying out a whole bunch of different activities can quickly help you filter out what you actually enjoy doing and what sounds great on paper but is horrible in real life.

However, things aren’t so easy when you deal with underlying assumptions like trusting everyone, not just leisure activities. If the fundamental ideas that make up your life get shaken, you can be in for a rude awakening. And with a lot to think about while you’re sitting there, angry, ashamed, embarrassed.

#4

Now I always pee before cutting jalapeno peppers. The other way around, never again.

Image credits: Jinzot

#5

Body suspension. What’s it feel like being hung from your back by hooks? Feels like being strung up from the ceiling by big metal hooks in your back… why was I surprised that it wasn’t transcendental?

Image credits: RhodiumPl8ed

#6

Assume that every co worker is a friend.
I truly believed most of my colleagues were friends in a place I used too work, to the point I’d go above and beyond to help them. Even if it was rarely if ever reciprocated. Yet whenever I needed help they were nowhere to be found or were ‘busy’. If I got in trouble they were quick to throw me under the bus without hesitation and would lie to my face about doing so.

Image credits: chrwiakgjw462q1

Something that we all have to remind ourselves of from time to time is that it’s all right to make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. And, heck, you could argue that perfection is overrated. What really matters is learning to embrace the mistakes that we make and learning the lessons that are there to be learned, without regret.

Vanessa Bohns, an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University, explained to us earlier about embracing mistakes, dealing with our embarrassment, and why hiding our mistakes isn’t healthy for us.

“We spend a lot of time and effort presenting an ideal version of ourselves to other people. When something happens that contrasts with the image we’ve been projecting—when we say or do something that shows we actually aren’t as graceful or as smart as we’d like people to believe—we feel embarrassed,” Vanessa told Bored Panda during an earlier interview that many of us want to seem perfect.

#7

Birthing without an epidural. I had laughing gas instead. Made me high as a kite. I screamed in pain while I was dissociating into space.

Image credits: tuxedo_cat_commander

#8

Childbirth and the postpartum period. Love my daughter to death. One and done.

Image credits: Alarming-Quarter-396

#9

Work at McDonald’s.
Never again. …. Never again.

Image credits: wolfeyes555

“Discovering you were wrong about something most everyone else around you has long known to be true is one of those moments. In that moment we learn, ‘Wait a minute, maybe I haven’t been presenting the image of being smart or worldly that I thought I was presenting all this time,’ which is embarrassing,” she explained how embarrassment works.

“One thing that’s interesting about embarrassment is that, for as much as we might experience it as painful in the moment, it’s actually very socially adaptive. Being embarrassed signals to other people that you care about what they think. And that actually draws people in to you,” the expert pointed out that when we admit to our mistakes openly, we become better liked.

#10

Have a wedding.

Never. Ever. Again. Way too much planning exhaustion stress all for one day that I barely remember and that I was dissociating from cause I don’t like being the center of attention. Arguments with bridesmaids and mother in law. The ridiculous cost. I did it for my husband who I love and who wanted to get married in a church and do the whole shabang. But I would never do it again if I had the chance, ever.

Image credits: anon

#11

Smoke. Did it for 14 years. I feel so much better having quit. Been about 10 years since and the amount of money saved and the smell and the cough.

Image credits: Memorydump1105

#12

Being obese.

I didn’t realize how much it negatively affected everything in my life until I lost 80 pounds. Then I was like “oh THIS is how I’m supposed to feel.”

Image credits: elmatador12

“So blushing, burying your head in your hands, laughing, acknowledging how embarrassing something was, are all totally healthy ways to react.”

On the flip side, when we try to hide our mistakes and embarrassment, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, socially speaking. In other words, it’s not only cathartic, it’s also socially useful for us to admit to the times we utterly embarrassed ourselves or messed up beyond all belief.

#13

Stay at a job I’m unhappy at.

Image credits: Apprehensive_Let_843

#14

Bungee jump.. as soon as my feet left the edge all I could think was “well that was stupid”…

It was exciting and probably safe enough.. but it was enough for me to know I will never willingly do that again.

Image credits: halversonjw

#15

Give a f**k about other people’s opinions of me. Not my business.

“The unhealthy way to react is to pretend you’re not embarrassed, that you didn’t make a mistake, or to get angry. Those things undo the positive effect of embarrassment typically has on other people by conveying insincerity and pushing people away rather than drawing them in,” Vanessa said.

#16

3 1/2 hour jungle hike with almost no water and wearing only a bathing suit and water shoes.

I didn’t do this by choice but was more or less forced into it and it SUCKED.

Image credits: KnockMeYourLobes

#17

Facebook. Deleted the account, never going back. I don’t miss it at all.

#18

Forgive a cheater.

#19

Long distance relationship.

Image credits: chagster001

#20

Marathons.

I did one to prove to myself I could do it and have no interest in doing one again. I know a lot of people say they ‘catch the bug’ and can’t stop doing them once they’ve done one. I am not one of those people. Once dated someone whose family did triathlons and ran a marathon on Thanksgiving as their turkey trot. Absolutely not.

Glad I did it – never again.

Image credits: PhiloPhocion

#21

Go watch a music artist that was in its prime 20 years ago, hoping for a great night…

Image credits: gbartali

#22

Hang out with people I don’t like just to have an excuse to get out of the house.

Image credits: Blaftoif

#23

Graduate school. So underpaid that I had to take out student loans to afford rent and food. And I’m just lucky I had the foresight to do so, or I would’ve had to drop out.

Got my thesis topic the semester I was expected to graduate. Ended up staying on over that summer and assembling a 200+ page 42,000 word thesis alongside a conference paper and an academic journal submission all in the same 7-month span. For $1200 per month to support myself and my wife.

All for my masters degree. And what am I doing now? Sitting in my parents kitchen job hunting. The same thing I’ve been doing since last august after I defended my thesis.

I get nauseated at the idea of staying in those conditions for 2 more years and god knows how many panic attacks to get a PhD. Yeah. Never again.

#24

Camping. Never again will I leave my perfectly comfortable house for a weekend to sleep on the ground and share a disgusting bathroom with 150 strangers.

#25

Food challenges. I tried eating a 1kg steak once and almost threw up. That was my first and last food challenge.

Image credits: p15i

#26

Camping by a river that was flooded by melting snow from an area that was 6 hours away and having to be heli-rescued. It was f***ing embarrassing.

Image credits: BonfireFanatic

#27

Go to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day. Shoulder-to-shoulder people, insane lines, and nothing special I couldn’t see earlier in the month.

Image credits: mGreeneLantern

#28

Swim in the sea at night whilst drunk. Nearly drowned.

Image credits: MrCasterSugar

#29

Any job involving tech support or customer service. I’ll starve before I deal with entitled older people who demand the latest technology, but refuse to learn how to actually use their new technology and expect the world to bend over backwards to satisfy their unrealistic demands. Half of them don’t think plugging in their TV is a requirement before calling and screaming that “this darnedest, useless smart tv don’t even want to come on and I’ve tried EVERYTHING! My old dumb TV lasted 40 years and never had a problem, now tell your boss Mr Netflix to send me a new TV and give me a refund!”

Image credits: djb2589

#30

I refuse to ever do retail again, people are literally such a**holes and don’t realize your trying to help them and still get their job done.

Image credits: Sufficient_Back_3156

#31

Work as a bartender.

I know, I know, the money is good. But getting home at 4am or later, the booze and drug scene, surviving on Red Bull and pedialyte, and getting grabassed by strangers while trying to pay my bills is not the life for me.

787 days sober and I’ll never look back. Got my degree and working as a design specialist/content developer for a museum now and I LOVE MY JOB. Also started my own small business and it’s going really well so far. I have an art show coming up soon and I’m really excited for it.

Image credits: butterflyfrenchfry

#32

Attempt [to end my life].
After maybe three of four days after the attempt I experienced what I think is called epiphany. Started everything all over. Loved myself, finished therapy etc. No matter what bulls**t life throws at me I will never do it again.

Image credits: FighterWoman

#33

Never go to San Francisco, or LA. I always imagined these places to be beautiful and progressive, with quirky cool vibes…

In reality they are disgusting, filthy, cesspools of inequality, drugs, homelessness, and apathy by NIMBY Faux progressives who would rather put spikes and rocks on the sidewalks than construct one affordable house that might lower their property values.

#34

Never pull, carry or push something really heavy. I damaged my Knees just to move a closet 1 Meter!! I wouldn’t risk damaging them for like 100 million dollars, f**k that

#35

Judge a book by its cover. Everyone deserves an opportunity to showcase their best attributes.

#36

Go to Disneyland or Disney World.
Paid waaaaay too much money to stand in waaaay too many lines, fighting crowds of waaaay too many people.
Disney parks are not a fun way to spend a day.

#37

Sharing too much.

I used to tell people my life goals and plans, and upload everything on social media as well: what I was doing, who I was dating or in a relationship with, where I was… all that.

Now I realise there is so much more peace and happiness in living a low-key life. I high-key enjoy that s**t.

#38

Vote Republican. I was a lifelong R until they picked Trump. My eyes were opened to what they were and I’ll never donate another cent or vote R for any position ever again. I love when I get the calls from them, begging for money. I get to explain why the money they used to get is now going to their opponents.

#39

Trying to be liked by everybody by always being nice and never saying no. Never again.

#40

Hot air balloon. I had a full blown panic attack and thought the bottom of the basket would break. Worst experience of my life.

#41

Decide to eat barely nothing to get thin (getting anorexia).

#42

Mountain climb. I climbed Mt Fuji got altitude sickness and had to be carried down.

#43

Go inside the great pyramid. It’s cramped, hot, and people smell.

#44

Have an open relationship. Began with swinging and then full blown polyamory. Such a s**t storm. Never again.

#45

Work in healthcare (USA).

#46

Skydive, did it for my birthday. Broke my back and blew disc’s out of my neck. Can’t do it again. Would never do it again. Thankfully I’m still able to walk.

#47

Have a relationship with someone with children, thus finding myself in the stepfamily situation with never fully feeling accepted, the ex being omnipresent, and always being the one to adjust because… those poor children. And it’s true: they cannot help their situation. But I aint doing it ever again.

#48

I’ll never work food service or retail again. You see a side of humanity you wish didn’t exist and I simply refuse to put up with people screaming in my face because they don’t like the prices I didn’t have anything to do with or that their expired coupons don’t work. I was always super nice to customer service workers, but after working it I’m super super nice.

#49

Pulling an all nighter. Age is catching up on me.

#50

Rent a car while visiting NYC.

Image credits: undead_opossum

#51

Hook up with people on Craigslist. I know it’s not possible anymore but I had always wanted too. When I did, my god it was bad. Guys straight up lying about what they look like. R*pe. Ladies with serious mental health issues refusing to let me leave for a couple days.

#52

Go to time square for new years eve, looks great on TV, not great in person unless you pay to get in the walled off area.

Image credits: Newfounder8

#53

Sky diving. Sure static line sky diving by climbing out of a moving plane and hanging on a strut then letting go was fine.

It was after chute opened and I was swaying from the chute, with nothing to see but the ground that I started to get really nauseous… Like sea sick. I guess the inner ear feeling me swaying did not jibe with what I was seeing. Basically ground is so far away my brain couldnt see parallax correctly.

I still managed to land right on the target on my first try! Then I sat in the field for like 20 minutes before I was sure I wouldn’t throw up if I moved.

Nobody much mentions sea sickness while skydiving but yuck, it sucks.

#54

Swim with dolphins. They’re fast, large animals and we don’t belong in open water.

Image credits: dooogall

#55

Keep putting everyone else’s needs over my own.

Image credits: Bucketlist074

#56

Go to a strip club. I’ve never felt so awkward in my entire life.

Image credits: paigezero

#57

Having sex without wanting to. I was in a relationship with someone who’d frequently pressure me into having sex, and I’m definitely never ever doing that again.

#58

Run an ultramarathon and not listen to my body when I blew out my knee. I continued to run 10 miles to finish the race with a severely strained IT band, hamstring and partial tear in my calf. Took my out of running for 6 months and did a number on my mental health. If I would have quit when it started to hurt I likely would have only been out for 8 weeks.

#59

Venice. Most romantic open sewer I’ve ever blown thousands at, only to be bored and ignored.

#60

Compete for first place in the duolingo diamond league. So ridiculous and useless. I can spend that time learning grammar, watching foreign films or reading foreign articles etc.

#61

Walk over 30 miles in one winter’s night. Not just because I can’t do it anymore. It was a little piece of hell. By the end I was near frozen and once I got where I was going my day wasn’t done with me. I actually spent a bit of it sleeping standing up. Fortunately at that point I was neither alone nor out in the cold.

#62

Get another dog. Close to retirement so it’s time to travel.

#63

Go to Olive Garden…. what a cesspool that was. Gave me a glass with lip gloss still on the rim from the last customer.

#64

Get my nipple pierced. It was hot for a while, until it got infected and had to take it out. Bye bye money.

#65

Have a baby with someone I’m not 100% in love with AND married to.

Being pregnant and single, and raising a baby alone is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m glad I left by piece of s**t baby daddy, but I’ll never do that s**t again. My mental health can’t take it.

#66

Going to a waterpark. I have tried it two times as a kid and a young teenager and both times I couldn’t have any fun since I’m terrified of small spaces and heights. It’s just so f**king scary and not fun at all. Don’t see the point.

#67

Having my headphones turned up all the way for extended hours of a day at a time. i was born half deaf in one ear and after doing this for so long i made my hearing worse.

#68

Binge drink. I used to go on benders for a week or two. Now I barely ever drink.

#69

Getting attached too quickly to someone that wanted me first. Getting played by someone like that is a different kind of pain. If you lost interest make it more obvious geez.

#70

Work in corporate management. After 35 years as an engineer (which I loved), I took a management job to put some serious money into retirement. Hated it for 4 years (but put most of my salary away. I was good at it and well liked, but I want to wash the skeevy out of my mind). Now thank f**k I’m retired!

#71

Get married. Been married close to 30 years. If something happened and I was single again; I’d stay single for the rest of my life. I see no need to get the government involved in my relationship again.

#72

Swim with whale sharks in the middle of the ocean. When you look down, it’s just complete blackness. Who knows what’s watching you.

#73

I’ll never submit entirely to my cravings. I once made and ate 2 boxes of Mac & cheese, and then snacked on some pickles. I was woken that night by the fury boiling in my loins and I ended up on the toilet for around 5 hours. Turns out I had given myself temporary lactose intolerance by using up all of the lactase in my body. Since your body produces lactase (the enzyme which digests lactose) very slowly, I ended up learning later that I was lactose intolerant for a few days after.

#74

Drive out of LA at the end of thanksgiving weekend.

I had an 8 hour drive turn into a 2 day exercise in futility.

#75

Preorder a videogame.

#76

Long distant driving to a holiday destination. We drove from Tour France to Barcelona for a few days’ break and spent those few days exhausted from the drive and also the thought of the drive back was exhausting to think about. Never again.

#77

Allow my mood to get tethered to someone else’s.

With my ex, I was only ever happy when she was happy and if she woke up in a bad mood, my day was ruined. I need to live my own life without clinging onto someone else’s.

#78

Ride an elephant.

I was talked into and convinced to go against my morals and beliefs that riding an elephant is cruel. I adore elephants and wanted the experience of getting close to them.

It was a “sanctuary” that looked after elephants that had been hurt and wouldn’t be able to get by in the wild.

I got to feed them oranges and play a game with one using my shoes and i had photos taken with them – I hate those photos- they remind me that I went against something I truly believe so I didn’t miss out.

#79

Spend my whole day doing nothing, Just watching video games and eating, I thought I would be happy but it made me miserable, after a while I dived into a deep depression, I felt so useless and like I had no purpose and when I started to study again and doing something with my life I felt amazing so now I’ve decided even if I have free time, I’m never gonna sit around and do nothing for days in a row.

#80

I won’t ever open packages with a knife again. I ripped my sleeping bag when i got too eager to open boxed package.

#81

Drunkenly agree to chug a jar of questionable moonshine at a bonfire.

I woke up at 3am in the rain outside one of the airborne barracks a few blocks down. My phone was shattered, glasses were nowhere to be found, I had a huge scrape on my head where I must have fallen and I was covered in vomit. I think vomiting like that probably saved my life with how much alcohol I put in my system that night. What a better way to start my army career lmao.

#82

Drive to work in the snow. Just not worth it. Company will not pay for damages if you crash or get hit. I work in a supermarket which gets virtually zero business on a snow day anyway. I’ll gladly use a sick day where in the past, I’d sleep over ahead of the storm just to avoid having to drive in it in the morning.

#83

Talk to my extended family.

#84

Download tiktok.

#85

Go to Home Depot in April on any weekend.

#86

Loan a friend money with the expectation of getting it back. Haven’t loaned money since and if I ever do, it’s a gift.

#87

playing videogames for too long

was big into vidya and still am, just not as big

if you do it too much it clouds your mind and takes away from real life experiences

don’t get me wrong, i still love playing, but I do it differently now

#88

College.

I spent 12 years getting a PhD, and f**k me, going to college is the worst possible way to learn stuff. Also, academic research is completely broken. It’s just a numbers game and the majority of published papers are utter garbage.

#89

Working in academia – left two years ago and never looking back. F**k that noise.
Soon as the business folk became in charge of the institution instead of the professors, it was all over. Changing the model from ” how can we best teach and research knowledge” to “how can we make more money to expand” destroyed the core philosophy.

#90

Pay $45 for a shot of tequila…

#91

General admission concerts for me I think. I loved concerts, been to a fair amount. I’d always line up hours early and be front row. I just think my knees can’t handle that anymore.

#92

Move to be closer to my family. I saw them just as much when I lived across the country. They put in zero effort. So I moved back. They can come visit me, or they can burn in Hell.

#93

Eat at a Mexican restaurant entirely staffed by White people. Literally the worst food I have ever had.

#94

Live in Alberta where the winter is 6 months long and goes down to minus 40c.

#95

Popping into the first aid hut for a splint at the top of the run. I had broken my thumb and it was pretty obviously misshapen. Just needed a little support so I didn’t injure it more getting down the mountain to go to my car.

Turns out, once you go into first aid you ain’t gettin out on your own two feet. Imagine being taken down the mountain on that stupid body sled for a broken thumb. Absolutely the most embarrassing and uncomfortable ride of my life.

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