Death and dying isn’t a pleasant subject to talk about, though there’s likely not one living person who has not been touched by death in some way. But the finality of death makes people wonder if people have any regrets from their life that they wish they could do over.
Author, Matthew Kelly decided to ask hospice nurses what they’ve heard patients reveal regretting before they died. The list was fairly long but also heartbreakingly simple. Many people spend their entire lives trying to figure out how to make more money in order to feel financially secure enough to vacation regularly or even retire.
Of course there would be some regrets around working too much, but that regret only made the list once. There are 23 other regrets people seemed to share and we’ll get into them below.
One of the first ones on the list is, “I wish I had more courage to just be my self.” Oof. That stings a bit. People spend so much time trying to make sure they’re well liked by others that it seems that some people forget to focus on just being themselves. People may hide their true selves for a multitude of reasons such as safety or fear of abandonment depending on what part of their identity they were hiding.
Another common regret is, “I wish I had taken more risks.” Risks can be hard when you have other people depending on you for survival. It makes sense that some people might look back on their life and think of all the risks they didn’t take, whether it be due to anxiety or security.
Listen to the whole list below:
So many regrets on the list are things that people can start doing now. Like wishing to love more or taking better care of themselves. It’s never too late to start caring for yourself or being outwardly more loving. In fact, nothing on the list is overly complex. They’re all heartbreakingly simple things that people have the ability to do before their time comes.
Maybe this list will inspire others to make a few tweaks in their life to work towards doing these things while they still can. Maybe it will cause people to realize they’re already well on their way to not having any of the regrets listed. Either way, it’s serves as a reminder to live life in the best way that you can while still being true to yourself.