I read a brief article today called Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The author, a nurse, has spent years with people in the final weeks of their lives, and she has documented in a blog and a book her findings.
In a nutshell, the top five regrets of those near death in this nurse’s experience are:
- I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
- I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Do you recognize yourself in any of the above? I do. Perhaps you can envision one or more additional possible regrets down the road if you continue on your current path.
The good news is that we have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others and thereby avoid those same mistakes. If so many at the end of life express regret at the above patterns of behavior, then that is our clue to avoid them and to take a different path.
Is there something different you can do today to make sure you don’t eventually express one of the above regrets?
Leap year lesson #344 is Learn from the dying.
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