This phrase refers to a list of things one wants to do before they die, or “kick the bucket.” Brooks uses it as the title of his essay as well as the title of the list of moral and spiritual experiences every person must undergo to achieve an inner light or to understand life’s richest meaning. His use of the term suggests that moral growth can continue until death. The phrase has a casual, colloquial tone that Brooks pairs with the serious endeavor of finding purpose in life. The result is a playful title to an essay that acknowledges that the items on Brooks’s list are serious achievements to which he aspires and on which he works continuously.

Brooks uses this term in the phrase “call within the call,” one of the moral achievements on his bucket list. A call is a strong internal drive to do something, and the word is often used in association with a profession or devotion to an ideal. Although the word refers to internal motivation, it also suggests that an individual is being called, or beckoned, by a source outside of or higher than themselves. For example, people often refer to the priesthood as a calling.