It’s the end of another term and it can be easy to look back with regret. When I was a student, I often thought that if only I had spent more time on that last paper, or that I should have spoken up in class more frequently. Now that I’m working, I hear many faculty wishing that they had gotten more research or publishing completed, or that they had hoped for more time to update their curriculum. While it is easy to fall into this line of thinking, try not to let the “What if” thoughts bring your mood and actions to a negative place. Of course, our decisions on how to spend our time are important ones especially if we are juggling many roles and responsibilities. However, as long as we are learning from our life lessons, we are moving forward. 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.1 The list below are the top five regrets for the terminal patients. There are great lessons contained in these thoughts and I hope you have some time over the winter break to consider goals and plans for your life. The library is full of resources to support these decisions.
Top 5 regrets at the end of life.
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 hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish I had let myself be happier.
Steiner Susie. Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The Guardian. February 1, 2012. Online. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?CMP=share_btn_link