The Greatest Regrets of the Dying

The greatest regret we can ever have is the regret of not living up to what we are capable of

Apologies, this topic is a little bit morbid but you only live once and it is important not to have any regrets. If you died tomorrow, would you have any regrets? If you were imagining your funeral, what would your eulogy say and would you be proud of who you are and what you have achieved? What is your biggest achievement in your life so far and what would you want that to be at the end of your life? These are some of the questions that you should think about.

Neale Donald Walsch said it best when he said, there is no blackboard in the sky on which God has written your purpose, your mission in life. You get to fill that part in, you decide what you do with your life in the decisions you make every day.

In 2013, Bronnie Ware, a palliative nurse conducted a study of the dying to find out what the most common regrets were to her patients at the end of their lives. Below are the top five themes:

  1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret. This is based on unfulfilled dreams and people doing what they thought they should do with their lives rather than what they were actually passionate about.
  1. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. This was a common theme from male patients. A good quote here is “never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”. Just remember that there is more to life than work.
  1. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others.
  1. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Friends are important at all stages of life, but it is important to continue to put effort into friendships otherwise they fade away.
  1. I wish that I had let myself be happier. Happiness is a choice, it is up to you. You are the only person who can make you happy, you’re as happy as you choose to be. The important lesson here is to do what makes you happy.

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take

What goals are you going to set yourself so you do not have any regrets at the end of your life? You only get one life so you may as well make it an amazing life and do what you want to do. Follow your dreams and don’t let anyone get in your way.

You will never regret what you do in life, you will only regret what you don’t do

What Should You Do Next

Caroline Wellingham is an accredited career and life coach and a certified NLP Practitioner. She loves encouraging, motivating and inspiring clients to achieve their career goals and ambitions.

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