I have heard great reviews about this book for years and am so glad that I finally read it! This book will bring you to tears, in a very good way, and make you think deeply about your life. Bronnie Ware was a palliative care nurse in Australia for 8 years and spent countless hours taking care of people who were dying. Bronnie beautifully documents the top 5 regrets of the dying, which I'll share with you below.
In sharing the top 5 regrets of the dying, let me encourage you to actually read this book so that you can let the full weight of these regrets sink in. Bronnie does a terrific job of sharing several life stories and honoring the dying individuals that taught her so much. Here are the top 5 regrets:
- 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 much.
- 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.
Let me encourage you right now to take a few minutes to read through these top 5 regrets again and think about how you are living your life today. Is there any chance you might end up with one of these top 5 regrets at the end of your life? If so, what can you do now to make changes to your life?
The wonderful writer Anne Lamott poignantly said at a book signing event at the Tattered Cover I attended years ago: "100 years from now? All new people." She gets a laugh when she says this line, but it also highlights for us all the brevity of life. We'll each be incredibly blessed if we live to 100, but odds are we'll live to more like 80, God willing. Your and my life is flying by quickly. Pick up The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware and ponder how you can live a life so you don't have regrets on your death bed.
If you're not familiar with palliative care nursing, let me share with you below this beautiful TED Talk by BJ Miller titled What Really Matters at the End of Life:
Mary Oliver wrote a wonderful poem, The Summer Day, where she poignantly asks each of us: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
Be well,
Mike
p.s. I plan to blog about Work-Life Happiness at least weekly in 2018. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails on my website at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html
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