Since we all know we cannot live forever, today I want to share something important with you – I have discovered the number one regret of the dying.
Yes. That’s right.
I know the number one regret people have when they realize they only have a specific amount of time left to live.
You know…when I was younger, I used to look a the world in very black and white terms.
Some people had a lot – a lot of stuff, a lot of health, a lot of access to power and powerful people, a lot of money, and they seemed to have a lot of happiness.
On the other hand, some people had very little – very little things, very poor health, no access to power or powerful people, very little money, and they seemed to be sad and miserable all the time.
When I was young, I assumed people would regret dying and not reaching a certain Financial level in life.
But I was wrong.
Money is not the single most important thing.
Keep reading to find out what’s most important to people who know their time is up.
But First, Let Me Tell You A Story
Once upon a time, there was this little girl. She was black little girl, growing up in North Carolina.
Her daddy was a physician.
Her mommy was a social worker.
Her parents worked together in her father’s office, and though she didn’t know it her daddy was a millionaire.
He worked hard to provide for his family every day, and her mother did everything in her power to raise her daughters to be strong, confident, well-rounded young women.
Unfortunately, there was a problem with this perfect picture. The problem was Mommy and Daddy had grown up very poor.
They didn’t understand what it was like for well-off black children growing up in the early 70. For the first time, they had access to all the things their white counterparts had access to.
But they didn’t have the right mindset. Everything looks good on the outside, but there was a mess internally.
As a result, when her daddy discovered that she wanted to be a writer, he immediately shot that down.
In his mind, not only was creativity unstable, but it was also not very valuable to society.
Her father reasoned that she needed to find a job that provided well for her and gave her the lifestyle she was accustomed to living.
That was the single most important thing to him, and it showed up in his parenting on an almost daily basis.
Thus Began A Lifelong Acquaintance With Regret…
As the girl grew up, she avoided everything creative. Though she was an exceptional singer, by the time she was 22, she was no longer singing.
She used to write in her journal multiple times a day, but she soon stopped writing and eventually lost all her journals.
She took jobs she hated just to pay the bills, and she even found herself dating men she didn’t really enjoy simply said she would not be alone.
By the time she was 38 years old, she was headed towards divorce, she was drinking herself to sleep at night, and she finally understood why people felt utterly hopeless in life.
One morning, when she was 40 years old and the divorce has been finalized, she woke up one morning crystal clarity.
It was 5am. The sun hadn’t risen, yet.
But her mind was bright with one idea.
She realized that life was short and she was going to figure out how to write for a living.
She didn’t want to die and regret not going after her dreams.
And This Is The Number One Regret Of The Dying
6 years later, happily settled into a full-time writing consultancy, she went to a routine doctor’s appointment and found out she had one year left to live.
After the initial shock wore off, she found deep, satisfying peace.
Here’s why.
Her daughter was in her early twenties, and she would be able to take care of herself. So that wasn’t a problem.
Both her parents were deceased.
She hadn’t remarried and her money was in order.
In fact, as she reviewed her life, she realized she didn’t really have any regrets.
The single most important thing to her as she was growing up had been that she figure out how to write for a living.
She always knew she was a creative person, but she’d denied it for years in order to please her parents.
Simply making the decision to go after her deepest dreams had given her what she’d been looking for…and she knew she could die without any regrets at all.
Through her, I discovered that the number one regret of the dying is that they didn’t have the courage to go after what was most important to them in life.
Instead, most people do what others expect of them. and as the woman in my story showed, that leads to an unfulfilled life… unless you change.
It’s Never Too Late To Go After Your Dreams
This leads me to what I want to tell you today. Today, I want to encourage you to go after what you want the most in life.
If you want to be married, and you’re single right now, then start preparing yourself to be an amazing person to be married to. Clean up your credit, learn how to cook, go to therapy and invest in learning how to be a great communicator.
If you want a new career, invest in yourself by getting the education you need and the networking you need for the work you want to do.
If you want to live somewhere different, start researching places to live and find out what it takes to move. You will never get there if you don’t plan and take action.
Sometimes, we think it’s too late. Other times, we assume we are too old, too much time has passed, or the idea is too silly.
If you look at some of the most successful people in the world, they had ideas at late ages, the ideas seemed outlandish, and some of them weren’t even the first to the table.
Just think about it. Chick-fil-A is not the first chicken fast food joint.
And if you forget about the social media giant for just a moment and just pretend it doesn’t exist, put the words face and book side by side, and that just looks weird.
Regardless, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, and most people feel like they couldn’t live without it.
Everywhere you look, there are examples of people who have done the seemingly impossible and they are very successful at it. There’s no reason why you can’t do the same thing.
Life Is Short. Don’t Have Regrets…Because We Are All Going To Die One Day
I was really surprised to find that the number one regret of the dying is that they didn’t have the courage to go after their dreams.
I thought they might regret not having children or not having more money…
…but it was deeper than that. And I’m glad to find out that I was wrong.
Today, I want to tell you to go after your dreams. They keep chasing after you for a reason.
For a long time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but then one day it became clear to me that I was put on Earth to help people. And so that’s what I do for a living, now.
And it’s amazing! If you had told me 15 years ago that this would be my life, I wouldn’t have believed you.
And trust me. It took a lot of work, trial, and error to get here…but all of the effort has been worth it.
I don’t want to die tomorrow, but I can honestly say that if I did die tomorrow, I don’t have any regrets.
I have chased after my purpose in life, and now my purpose has become my passion. There is literally no difference between who I am and what I do for a living.
And isn’t that where we all want to be in life?
Who wants to be a car salesman in the daytime and an accountant at night and in all their other free time?
Why not become the best accountant you can, do it all the time, and get so many referrals that you have to turn business away?
Why chase after a paycheck and let your dreams waste away and die inside you?
Today, I hope this article inspires you to push towards what you’re most passionate about in life.
Tell me: What would you do if you knew you
absolutely could not fail?
