Palliative nurse Bronnie Ware worked with patients who'd gone home from the hospital to die. She assisted them the last three to 12 weeks of their lives.
Ware found these people, when faced with their impending mortality, would reflect on their lives with a high degree of honesty and clarity. When she asked them about regrets or anything they would have done differently, Ware found that there were five most often-cited regrets they mentioned:
1.) To be more true to myself, less concerned with the expectations of others. This was the most common regret as they reflected on how many of their dreams did not materialize because of their choices — either actively made or passively not made. They realized that while they were healthy, they did not choose to do even half of the things they would have liked in their lives and that by the time they lost their health, it was too late. How many would have felt more true to their own path had they received some help along the way as to how to do this?