A hospice nurse reported five regrets she heard most from dying patients: not living authentically, working too much, not expressing feelings, losing friendships, and refusing to be happy. The talk traces each regret to the pressures that create it and argues you can avoid them by living differently now.
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Today I'm going to talk about the five most common regrets of people who are dying. Now, just to give this some context, this is written by a lady who was a nurse in a hospice center for people who are about to die. And this is what she found were the five things that she heard more than anything else of what people regretted in their lives. Regret number one. I wish that I had the courage to live a life that was true to myself and not the life of what others expected of me. What does this show you? It shows you that a lot of times we're worried about the fear of being rejected. We're worried about the fear of not fitting in or the fear of failure. But in reality, when people get to the end of their lives, this is one of the main fears that they have. That they didn't live a life that was true to themselves. What they wanted to do. They did what they felt society should have them do. They did what their parents felt that they should do. They didn't follow their heart. The number one regret of people at the end of their life. Regret number two. I wish I didn't work so hard. Now, if you follow me, you know that I am a big proponent on working hard, but I think there is a balance that's needed. Sure, you should work hard. If you know what you want, you should work hard towards your dream. If you don't know what you want and you're working for somebody else, you don't necessarily need to work 80, 90, 100 hours a week and work so hard just to provide for your family. I believe there's a balance. Work very hard, but work hard for what you're passionate for, and have a balance of working what you want for what you want, to get what you want, but also enjoying life, taking time off and being with people that you love. Regret number three. I wish that I had the courage to express my own feelings. See, we're caught in society standards of what men should be like and what women should be like. Think that if we're vulnerable, it shows that we're weak. That's a lot of people's fear. But being vulnerable actually shows the other person how courageous you are. Why? Because everybody wants to be able to express their feelings. So we feel that if we're vulnerable in front of people, they see us as weak. They actually see us as strong because they look at us and say, man, I wish that I had the courage to be vulnerable just like them. Number four. I wish that I had stayed in touch with my friends. Now this is an important one because a lot of people feel like work and success is the only thing that matters. But what. What this shows you is that people at the end of their lives wish that they would have spent more time with the people that mattered most to them. What does it show you? It shows you that success is not everything, that money is not everything. What should be of the highest priority to you is the relationship of you and the people that are around you. Number five, I wish that I let myself be happier. We have to constantly remind ourselves of what is amazing, of what we have to be happy for, and to actually think about those things versus thinking about all the things that we don't have and start focusing on all that we do have. So, once again, the five regrets of the dying. Number one, I wish I lived a life that was true to myself and not what others expected of me. Number two, I wish I hadn't worked so hard. Number three, I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. Number four, I wish that I had stayed in touch with my friends. And number five, I wish that I let myself be happier. So those are the five biggest regrets of people who are dying. So what I want you to think about is how can you learn from their mistakes? If it's very common that those are the five most common regrets of the dying, how can you learn from their mistakes and make sure that you make changes in your life to make sure that you're happier and that you live the life that you really want?
