Top five regrets of the dying | Death and dying | The Guardian

1 Feb 2012

There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps. A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'.

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.

[...]

  1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

  2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

  3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

  4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

  5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

  • Orannis62 [ze/hir]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

    Related to that, I wish I had realized I was trans and acted on it earlier. So much time being miserable in my body without knowing why, and then a while KNOWING why and being too scared to act on it or even fully acknowledge it. Being trans is scary, but it's also fucking dope even outside the "I don't hate my body now" aspects.

    No one is ever too old to transition, and truth be told I'm younger than a LOT of people choosing to start transitioning. But still, I spent so much time living inauthentically