5 regrets of the dying...
I read an article (link to the article below) a while back that talked about the top 5 regrets of the dying, and here they 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 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.
We all know that life goes fast. We stay pretty busy working, keeping up with the house, kids, striving to hit our goals, and we rarely take time to think about well we are doing at managing this one life we get.
We all stay pretty busy trying to chip away at our goals or fix what we perceive to be our flaws. We spend a lot of time desperately trying to understand our shortcomings, so we can "fix them." And we usually try to hide out and pretend that they don't exist by numbing out through Netflix, vodka, shopping, eating, etc.
Most of my new clients are in this mode. They get so wrapped up in this that they can't see how much time they're wasting.
When was the last time you took a minute and thought about your life?
Which of the top 5 regrets would apply most to you if you found out that you didn't have much time left?
Did you cringe or have a physical reaction to any of them?
The exciting thing here is that each of these is 100% within your control.
Why not decide to pick one and start working on cleaning it up?
Today.
A few years ago, this entire list, plus about 35 more, would have applied to my life.
Currently, the only one that applies to me now is, "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
So that is the one I'm working on cleaning up, and here's my strategy.
First of all, I have a lot of excuses as to why I don't stay in touch with my friends. You probably have a lot of excuses that feel like valid reasons and get curious about that.
Here are my valid reasons (aka excuses)
✔ My brain feels overloaded at the end of the workday.
✔ I rarely think about texting someone; it just doesn't even pop into my mind.
✔ I don't particularly enjoy talking on the phone.
✔ I need quiet and space to think.
(I sound like a fantastic friend, huh? 😂)
But, I love my friends, and I always enjoy connecting with them, and it sucks when I suddenly realize that I haven't talked to someone for six weeks or so. And it's not because I don't care, I just get lost in my life.
So this is where time management comes into play. As I've said a million times, managing your time isn't about being a workhorse.
It's about deliberately deciding how you want to spend your time to create the life you want to live. Managing your time by default will never create a different result because you already have the results from what comes naturally to you.
Here is my strategy. I will schedule time on my calendar each week to connect with a friend deliberately. Time goes fast, and I am hustler, so I stay pretty busy and follow my schedule like a robot, and if it's important to me, it needs to be on my calendar. PeriodT (for my fellow TikTokkers 😂)
Pick one that you think would be your biggest regret and decide to clean it up. Start small. Get creative and come up with ideas on small tasks you could do daily to narrow the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in that area.
There are a few versions of your future. The one where you keep doing what you've been doing and nothing changes for months, years, and decades and ultimately end up with the same regret at the end.
And there's the version where you commit to improving your life and creating a life that you love.
NO. MATTER. WHAT. It's your choice, and nothing will change if nothing changes.
If you're ready to commit to real change, I can help you. Book your call to learn how.
Machele Galloway is a Certified Life Coach through The Life Coach School. She's based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and specializes in helping her clients manage their time and their minds. She firmly believes that you can't manage one without managing the other. She virtually coaches women nationwide. If she isn't coaching clients, she is studying concepts and techniques. And if she isn't doing that, she's probably playing with a dog or watching the Real Housewives of some city. - “Life is short. Play a little.”
