Perhaps you’re using today to reflect. Perhaps things went well for you this year. Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps you’re already looking ahead to next year. Or, perhaps, you’re too busy hanging out with your families. In which case, bravo!
Regardless of where your head is today, let me share the top five regrets of the dying, taken from Bonnie Ware’s book of the same name.
Here they 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.
I revisit this list several times a year. It helps me stay the course or, if I’ve strayed, nudges me back on track. Because we ignore the wisdom of the dying at great cost. And I will spend the rest of my life ensuring my children don't ignore it either.
How am I planning to do that? In the same way I plan to help my children overcome every other challenge and obstacle that life throws at them: building their self-esteem.
By my reckoning, a lack of self-esteem is responsible for people reaching the end of their lives with a list of things they wish they had or hadn’t done.
Next year, I will focus on building my children’s confidence so that they have everything they need to live a life well lived. And then, one day, hopefully far from now, they will greet their demise not with a list of regrets but with the comfort of having lived a life of fulfilment.
