“The Top Five Regrets of Dying” – Regret Number Two
I continue my posts about Bronnie Ware “The Top Five Regrets of Dying”,
The second regret is – I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
And I believe a lot of people will associate with this regret. What do you work for? We work many hours to make more money, but what do we need it for? A lot of people will answer “To have a good life”. But what does it mean? What “good life” means to you? When I came to NY I was always saying that I want “a luxury life” and at some point, my friend Magda told me: “But you have one already. You do what you always wanted to do”. And her point shifted everything for me.
I see that some people don’t even know what they need this money anymore. When they start making more, the amount they wanted, they want to make even more now. They usually say “for my family to have a better life” (often associate “better” with more expensive stuff around). Whereas what really is valuable is time (that you can’t buy, no matter how much you make). And it’s again about the things I’ve been writing over and over again on JLNY – many people think that they will live forever. I do understand ambition, goals, mortgage and wanting more, believe me – I get it, I have the whole list of goals for myself, too, but I recently started question things. How much do you need and how much will make you stop wanting more? How much will satisfy you? And are you sure the things you say will satisfy you, will really do? Because from my experience – whenever I get to my goal, my goal is changing and I even forget to be happy about the fact I achieved what I wanted and the stakes go higher. So do you know what you really want and why you want it? What do you think will bring you happiness? I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I know that working long hours for many years and postponing enjoying your life for the future (my favorite – “I will travel when I get old”) don’t really work. Work hard, work smart, work many hours, sure, do it, I am all for that (I do it myself). To get somewhere you actually have no choice than to do that, but also evaluate your reasons and look around. And think again – how much money do you really need? I keep asking myself this question too and the more I ask, the more I see I don’t need that much anymore. Right now I work to live in NY and to be able to write. And I save money on travel. There are my priorities right now. But I’m also more happy eating breakfast at a diner than at The Plaza Hotel. But everyone has its priorities and looks through them at their life (and others lives). But I will write about it in a separate post.
