5 Regrets of the Dying

My life is half behind me. As I look forward, I wonder what will become of my second half of life. Will I live it to it's fullest? Will I make the most out of this one life, while I'm here on earth living it? I found this to be an interesting read and wanted to share it.

I wonder how much differently someone would live their life if they could go back and do it all again, after experiencing these death bed revelations?

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected: denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Yet every single patient found peace before departing. Every one of them. When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced. Here are the most common five:


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 have not honored even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they’d made, or not made.

It’s important to try to honor at least some of your dreams along the way. It’s too late once you lose your health. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

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reply to post by Under Water


I agree with what you posted.

I saw this show once on tv, where the same question was asked to some elderly in a retirement home, to my surprise and laughter several said, including a woman, that they wished to have had more and better sex, lol.

The only regret I have is “Not knowing now what I didn’t know back then”.

I’m 43, and there was a time when I was younger, where I thought I had it all figured out. Unfortunately, I “not” knowing it all got me in a lot of trouble. With age comes wisdoms. I do have my regrets, but overall, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Sometimes it takes something traumatic in life to see change take place. When I was 19, I got hit by a semi changing my tire on the freeway. I layed helpless in a ditch with 13 broken bones. 3 years following the semi accident, I got part of my hand run over by a train. I was lucky to only lose my right index finger. It could have been much much worse.


The smartest choice I ever made in life was waiting until I got into my middle thirties to have children. It’s a shame to see kids having kids. People should enjoy their younger years while they still have their youth.