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“Your time is precious, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
There are times when we are compelled to choose a path dictated by other people or the society. It could be because of money, reputation, or merely the fear of going against our parents. If you’re torn between living your own life and living what seems to be acceptable, the best people to ask are the dying.
Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, shares what she has learned from taking care of the dying in her blog called “Inspiration and Chai,” where she has recorded the epiphanies of the dying to keep and share their last-days insights. Having gathered a lot of attention, she decided to compile them in a book called “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.”
In summary, the top 5 regrets were not being happy enough; not staying in touch with friends and family; not having the courage to express their feelings; working too hard; and most of all, not having the courage to live a life true to themselves.
Living someone else’s life makes you pursue goals that aren’t even yours. And if you do reach these goals, they’ll only make it harder for you to break free from the shackles of other’s people’s expectations. Pursuing for what we truly want is hard enough, much more pursuing the goals set to us by someone else!
To borrow the words of Buddha, “The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.”
