The top five regrets of the dying

By Andrew Jardine, General Manager of the Institute of Administrative Management (IAM).

The magical John Hotowka is speaking at an IAM event in Liverpool in February and the subject of Achievement Thinking reminded me of a thought-provoking, if somewhat morbid, book from a few years ago.

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, specifically caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She initially recorded their dying thoughts and feelings in a blog called Inspiration and Chai. This proved to be so popular that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.

According to Ware, here are the top five regrets of the dying:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

John’s talk covers some of the thinking and strategies required to address these five issues, and we’d like to support that with some thoughts of our own.

Head over to the IAM website – http://instam.org/Top-Five-Regrets – to learn more about how integrity, emotional intelligence and networks can help avoid these common regrets.

You can also learn about our events coming to your city and the discounts you can get to attend thanks to our relationship with PA Life magazine.

For more information about the IAM please contact us, info@instam.org.