No Regrets: Living Life Like There Are Few Tomorrows

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, looking after patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded her patients' dying epiphanies in her blog, which, thanks to the attention it received, led to the release of her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. 

The top five regrets of the dying, according to Bronnie, are: 

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 

2. I wish I hadn't work so hard. 

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. 

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. 

Just about every day, I meet someone who is achieving less than they are capable of because they are too scared to speak up or be truly who they are. Some are too busy to realize they don’t even like what they do, let alone pursue their dreams. I often meet people who allow their potential to be constrained within the safe boundaries of what other people think they should do and what it means to be successful. 

Bronnie reports that most of the people she cared for had honored not even half of their dreams. What is sobering to reflect on is that these people came to realize, only at the end of their lives, that they had had the power to choose a different outcome all along. They realized, when it was too late, that their unfulfilled dreams were due to the choices they had made or not made along the way. 

What choices are you making that may be leading you to unfulfilled dreams or regrets? Life is too short to allow other people, misplaced priorities and misconceptions about the power we have to choose to hold us back from thriving in life. As I share in both of my books, The Corporate Dojo and The People Manager’s Toolkit, the extent to which we thrive not only at work but in any area of life is determined by the strength of our spirit and the wisdom of our choices. 

Like most of us, I struggle to consistently do what I know I need to do to achieve everything I am capable of. Despite knowing what it will take to fulfill my dreams and potential, I struggle day-to-day, moment-to-moment, to make the choices I need to.  

The things I work hard to focus on because I trust they will allow me to avoid the regrets Bronnie describes are: 

Have the Courage to be Vulnerable: Let the world see an authentic version of who I am. 

Observe My Own Thoughts: Choose both what I think and how I feel. 

Seek Wise Counsel: Get advice from others but make my own decisions for my own reasons. 

Share Thoughts and Feelings Openly: Be sensitive to the impacts I have on others. 

Listen to My Internal Compass: Do what feels right. 

Pursue My Purpose: Take every opportunity to live and work in line with my purpose. 

Stand Up for What I Believe In: Respect the rights and opinions of others. 

Live a Balanced Life: Prioritize balance in all areas of life. 

As Bronnie said so well, “Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.”