Assigning values to variables in a list using a loop

var_list = [one, two, three]
num = 1
for var in var_list:
    var = num
    num += 1

The above gives me an error that 'one' doesn't exist. Can you not assign in this way? I want to assign an incrementing number for each var in the list. So I want the equivalent of

one = 1
two = 2
three = 3

but without having to manually create and initialize all variables. How can I do this?