The top 5 regrets of the dying

The biggest regrets people have on their deathbed:

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.

– Bronnie Ware, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”

It’s a good list of questions to review from time to time. Since I’m on rest mode, reflection comes naturally. What I am doing for each regret:

1. Indie hacking and entrepreneurship is so hard. But it’s true. To me. I want it. It makes me come alive. So I will continue pursuing it. Despite financial challenges. Despite not getting all the support I need.

2. This is definitely my Achilles heel. I like working hard, so I tend to overwork. Learning to rest takes discipline. I’m constantly having to learn and relearn this. But at least there’s awareness – it’s the first step to overcoming it, as always.

3. Men—especially fathers and those getting to mid-life forties—tend to get more quiet. We tend to keep to ourselves more. We have less buddies to talk to, because everyone’s busy with their families. We get less expressive, less communicative. I see that a lot in the fathers of my father’s generation, and that’s not something I want to turn into.

4. I’m making more friends online now, and mostly lost touch with my irl friends. Is that a bad thing? Or a good thing? I don’t know. I lack the energy and time to go out and meet people, and pretty happy with the friends I made on the internet. Yet, something about the lack of face-to-face interactions makes me wonder if online friendship is lacking in some fundamental human way…

5. For me, doing #1 is already the key to #5, letting myself be happier. But sometimes having a end goal gets in the way of lived happiness on a day-to-day basis. I can’t only allow myself to be happier when I hit $10k/m. Happiness and joy has to be there, right here, right now. Enjoy the journey, love the company, and savour getting closer to the destination.