“Regardless of how much courage it can take to live true to your own path, it will never be as painful as lying on your deathbed with the regret of not having tried.”
Bronnie Ware
Beyond the Quote (21/365)
Bronnie Ware is a palliative nurse who writes about her experiences in sharing people’s last moments alive with them. You can imagine the power and potency of such moments. In many cases, this experience of being with a person who is passing is outsourced to palliative nurses, like Ware, and isn’t something that many people experience first-hand in their lifetimes. Being with somebody who is about to die, however, might teach us more about living than anything we might ever read in a book or hear in a conversation. Until then, hearing what Ware has learned might be one of our next best (and most important) options.
What Ware recognized, when speaking to many of her patients about their lives, is that many of them had similar regrets. According to Ware, when reflecting on how they spent their life, people’s top five biggest regrets were the following: they wished they let themselves be happier; that they stayed in touch with their friends, that they had the courage to express their feelings; that they didn’t work so hard; and that they lived true to themselves and not in accordance to the expectations of others.
So, as you finish reading this today, let these insights be a guide for you as you move forward in your life. If there’s any one thing you can do for the people who have come before you, it’s to resolve to embody the practices that made their life great and to NOT let your life come to an end with the same regrets that they had. With that in mind, here are the regrets again, but written out as a mission for you to prioritize. I hope they find you well and I hope they help you live your best life.
- Let yourself be happy—remove any barriers stopping it.
- Reach out to friends—some daily, some weekly, some monthly, some yearly, but stay in touch.
- Express your feelings—our vulnerabilities are what lead us to our most authentic selves.
- Don’t let work take over your life—work hard, yes, but stay balanced too—balance is more important.
- Do things for you, not for anyone else—when you’re on your deathbed, it will be your dreams that you’ll be reflecting on, not the dreams of anybody else. Never forget that.
Read Next: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying and Insights for Living
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
Join our newsletter and get the BEST of what we post every week. Here's an example. Like? Sign up.
[amp-optin id=42297]