The Top Three Regrets of the Dying
I have a wonderful friend and he is dying. Dying as in he was just diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I met with him and we had a delightful talk about death. I loved our time together because it’s not very often we humans have deep conversations about much of anything anymore let alone about our mortality.
Instead of tears, I filled up with so much peace, love, connection, and compassion for him.
I smiled big when he told me that he wakes up every morning and asks himself how he can really live each one of his remaining days. Good question, right?
He was asking, and taking action on, this question well before his diagnosis. He gets it.
I didn’t used to get it. Sometimes I still get caught up in my head and the day-to-day and lose sight that I am made limitless and great. That I can be and do anything I want. And how I get to choose how to show up fully for myself and my life.
These facts are universal and apply to you too.
So why don’t they always feel true? Loaded question!
A big factor? Women are socialized to play small. To be selfless and giving. Overly responsible for everything and everyone. To put ourselves last.
It messes with your confidence, worthiness, and your health.
It zaps your time and energy, leaving you with no bandwidth to explore what really living could even look like.
When you unravel from society’s B.S. programming, guess what?
You go back to being a clean slate! A slate where you get to decide that you are f-ing enough. Where you choose to honor unshakable boundaries that put the life back into your life. To give from a full cup instead of an empty one.
Does that sound foreign? Having a loving relationship with yourself? Makes sense because, once again, society teaches us to prioritize loving and serving others before ourselves.
It’s a lie. The more you really live for yourself, the more you inspire and empower those you love to do the same.
Bringing this full circle…faced with your mortality you will never say you wish you would have played small and put yourself last.
In fact the top three regrets of the dying* 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 didn’t work so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
*From Bronnie Ware’s book, The Regrets of the Dying
How do you want to really live the rest of this day?
Do you need to speak up for yourself? Say no? Do something fun for a change? Take an action step on your dream or dare to dream? Let something or someone go?
Do it. NOW.
Play your life like you mean it.
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Did you know I’ve been coaching women on how to live without regrets since 2013?
The three science-backed tools I teach give women 6-8 additional hours each week. They use this time to take easy care of themselves, their bodies, and their lives. Enter your email below and grab the self-assessment to see if these tools are what you didn’t know you needed.
original post: 10/12/2016