An Australian palliative care nurse catalogued the regrets of her dying patients, and identified the most common issues. Workaholics take note: not spending enough time at work was not among them.
Picture by Jonesie201
A report at the Guardian summarises the contents of Bronnie Ware’s book The Top Five Regrets Of The Dying. Here they are, along with some of the advice we’ve featured on Lifehacker in the past for working through those issues. (We’ve actually mentioned the list before, but it seems worthwhile to link it with specific advice.)
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
- Stop Caring About What Others Think, Get Back Your Self-Respect
- Put Down Your Burden Of Perfection To Get To The Real Amazing Work Of Your Life
- Boost Your Self-Confidence By Attempting To Write A Long List Of Your Failures
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
- Declaring Bankruptcy On Your To-Do List
- Five Important Points About Flexibility And Work/Life Balance
- Re-Examine What It Means To Be Productive For Better Work-Life Balance
- Ways You Can Relax And Recharge On Your Day Off
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
- Speak Lower To Boost Your Confidence
- Boost Your Confidence By Talking About Something You Know Well
- How Overconfidence Can Help You And Hurt You
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
- How To Ask A New Acquaintance To Be Your Friend
- Using Multiple Technologies Can Make You Feel Lonelier
- How To Video Chat With Your Friends And Family Using Skype
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier
- Why Freelance Workers Are So Happy
- Three Steps To Happiness
- Spending On Experiences Instead Of Possessions Results In More Satisfaction
How are you ensuring you can live a life without regrets? Share your ideas in the comments.
Top Five Regrets Of The Dying [The Guardian]
Ben
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 1:18 PMThis comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted
jjokin
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 1:26 PMSorry, you’re going to have a few regrets if you haven’t fulfilled these.
Don’t wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19)
Kill anyone with a different religion. (Deuteronomy 17:2-7)
Or do you pick and choose the bits you want to follow? I do that too; it’s called “critical thought”, and comes in handy when making life decisions without needing a reference guide.
Ben
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 2:21 PMHi jjokin, the verses you mention were addressed to ancient Israel and don’t directly apply to Christians today – if you keep reading through the Bible, you will see that God relates to people differently these days (after Jesus came). I think the key is that life is about a relationship with God, not a list of rules. If you have a good relationship with God, you won’t have any regrets.
sp_oz
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:35 PMsorry to burst your bubble mate, but god doesn’t exist. the bible is a massive elaborate hoax first written 200 years after the death of a person so-called jesus
Ben
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 4:42 PMI don’t think it’s quite as simple as that. There is strong evidence to support the existence of God and the truth and age of the Bible. It’s not the sort of stuff that can be dismissed with a one-liner.
Andrew
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:13 AMDinosaurs???
They forgot to mention that little nugget
Dani
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 11:00 AMNo there’s not. Grow up and stop cherry picking from your made up book.
Stop being so weak minded and start living for yourself!
fractal
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 3:43 AMSource?!?!?!?
Would love to see what you consider as ‘evidence’
Mike from East Malvern
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 5:26 PMThey forgot #6 -
6. I wish I hadn’t wasted all those years anaesthetising my mind and denying myself a good time just to please a mythical sky fairy.
Caustic
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 2:00 PMFollowing the Bible might be fine if your white male and middle to upper class. Too bad if you’re black, female, gay or poor.
Ben
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 3:02 PMWhy’s that? There are millions of people around the world in all sorts of different situations who follow the Bible.
Prometheus
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 9:04 PMHave you ever of the place called Africa & the disease called AIDS? Have you ever heard of the Pope? Did you know he encourages a society with a epidemic of AIDS to not use protection.
Fun Fact: The Pope is killing more people than most dictators.
Knowing is half the battle.
Ned
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 9:57 AMFirst- interesting article, thanks.
Second, I was sorry to see it used as an opportunity to push religion. As Prometheus and others have pointed out, religion has done much harm in society. And trying to justify it using the bible always results in the selective memory so typical of the religious – “we don’t think that bit is what god said anymore, it’s this bit”. Luckily the bible can accommodate them so well as it contains enough rambling contradictions that you could select to be a gay-woman-black-Jew hating bastard and justify it. I mean it’s not like the many popes haven’t done this.
Kjafgf
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 5:24 PMthis seems a bit familiar: http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2011/05/31/the-top-5-regrets-people-make-on-their-deathbeds/
Angus Kidman
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 9:04 PMI specifically note in the post that we’ve mentioned this list before, and the earlier post links to the Next Web report on it. What point are you making?
Lourdes
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:11 PMlive life to the fullest and don’t worry what peope think. Spend as much time with loved ones – that’s it !
Turkey
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:49 AMPalliative care? Surely it’s either 1. I wish I’d gone to the doctor sooner ( for terminally ill) or 1. Who are you? ( For the aged)
Jai
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 4:33 PMI already regret all the time I’ve spent in flame wars about religion on the internet. Can we please be more tolerant of each other’s beliefs?
admrich
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 1:42 AMhttp://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/capitalism-jewish-achievement-and-the-israel-test
Hmmm ? All that aside, the ‘religious’ seem somewhat more successful as a result & certainly more than statistically so.
may be what they say about death can also be more than statistically applicable ?!
Just saying..