What Do People Regret Most When Facing Death?

Deathbed regrets seems like a morbid topic but there has been plenty of research on the subject and the conclusions may help you live your life to the full. Australian nurse Bronnie Ware spent several years caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. During this time she recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog and eventually put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Ware writes of the phenome- nal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives and how others might learn from their wisdom. “When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently,” she says, “common themes surfaced again and again.”

Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. “This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.”

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. “This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed…