Top 5 Regrets of The Dying

Peak Progress
Jul 30, 2017 · 3 min read

Life is short. It seems like the most clichéd thing ever when we say it, but the truth is that it goes by faster than we think.

It seems slow when we live in the moment, but when we look back upon our lives it often times just seems like blurf

When we’re in our 20s, it seems like we could live forever.

But once we start having kids, our lives become divided in discrete chunks. You only get 52 weekends with your 5 year old, and once those 52 weeks pass, you’ll never be able to spend time with your 5 year old again.

Hindsight bias is always the best teacher, and when we look back at our life, we realize there are always many things that we regretted doing, but now its too late to do anything to change the situation.

And so, here are the top 5 regrets of people on their death beds. Perhaps we can educate our younger selves before it’s too late.

1. I worked too much and never made time for my family

Those 9–5s can easily consume our lives, plus when we have to work overtime, life just becomes a lot more hectic.

When we’re working our jobs, we’re decrease the time we spend with people who truly matter.

Because those people are going to make up of our best memories when we look back upon life, and not the hundreds of hours we sunk into work.

2. I should’ve spent more time with friends and family

Similar to regret #1, as people grow older, your job and wealth becomes a lot less important than the people you have in your life.

Material wealth is meaningless when you don’t have anyone to share it with, and people find that they often miss their friends when they grow old and lose touch.

It’s easy to lose yourself in the daily routine of working, and so that’s why taking care of your personal relationships is a lot more important than you think.

3. Not taking action because you are afraid of failure.

Not asking out the girl you like. Not going after the guy you think is cute. Not quitting the corporate world to pursue your own startup and passions in life. Not traveling more because you’re too busy with work. These are all the things that we’re going to regret not doing later on when we look back towards life.

The general motto that is helpful to have is that: I can live with failure, but I can’t live with regret.

4. Happiness is a choice.

It is easy to become a victim of our circumstances and blame the situation that we’re placed in for everything.

It is easy to become unhappy, perhaps because of the many things we are not satisfied with in our lives.

Too bad many of us do not learn to see the joy and positive side of things, and learn to be satisfied with what we have.

5. Not going outside your comfort zone

Being inside your comfort zone, doing what you feel comfortable is fucking easy. That’s why everybody does it.

Instead, embrace the unfamiliar, don’t settle for mediocrity, and pursue your passions in life. Don’t settle for society’s mold of what you should be, because that’s the easiest way to lose yourself in the process.

Peak Progress

Lessons of life you wished you knew earlier. Improve your people skills and sharpen your social interactions with other people at peakprogress.co

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