What would you change if you knew you had only one day left to live? Would you spend more time at work, pouring over budget figures, and trying to figure out how you were going to make this quarter’s numbers? Would you read just one more email from a complaining co-worker? Would you check your Slack one last time?
If you’re like me, I’d bet you wouldn’t do anything work-related. In fact, I bet you would see if there was any way to extend that one day into six months or more, because there is so much you have yet to accomplish. Maybe you would vow to make a difference in your family, with your friends, in your community, or somewhere else in the world. Maybe you’d see if you could skydive, climb Pike’s Peak, or snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.
If you knew when the end was, I’d guess you would do all those things you’ve been meaning to do, but just never had the time to do. What’s stopping you from doing them right now?
In her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Bronnie Ware wrote about the top five regrets people have.
Top five regrets of the dying
- “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 that I had let myself be happier.”
Can you relate to this at all?
Here’s a simple yet hard activity for you.
Write your obituary as though today were your last day. Be honest!
Some things to include might be:
- Who is at the service mourning you?
- What specifically are you most proud of?
- What difference did you make in the lives of those at the service?
- How is the world a better place because of what you did?
Now rewrite it the way you WANT it to be.
- Who are the the people you want there?
- What are you most proud of?
- What difference did you make in the lives of those at the service?
- What’s most memorable to others?
You may want to ask others for feedback on your obituary now and then to see where the gap is.
One final action step:
Start living your life the way you WANT to be remembered by, with the people you love the most, right NOW!
NOTE: A version of this first article appeared in my book 10 Ways to Make It Great!, published in 2006.