For more than 25 years, Todd Bodkins was a hospice worker. His job was to make sure that terminally-ill and very elderly people were comfortable and cared-for during the final weeks, days, and hours of their lives. Curious, Todd began asking his patients a simple question: what do you regret?
The answers he received were breathtakingly insightful. He found that hospice patients, at the end of their lives, were afforded a touching perspective denied to most of us who are living day to day. Todd wrote down his patient's regrets, keeping track of which ones arose most often. These regrets are a fascinating reminder that life is not all about career success, and offer a blueprint for how young people should order their priorities. Some of them are quite surprising!
Here are the ten most common regrets of people who are dying:
1. I Wish I Was Not Dying
2. I Wish I Could Afford a Better Hospice With Less Intrusive Staff
3. I Wish I Had Spent More Time Living Outside this Hospice, and Less Time Dying inside this Hospice.
4. I Wish I Had More Morphine
5. I Regret Not Living Longer
6. I Wish the Last Season of Game of Thrones Hadn't Been Such a Dumpster Fire
7. I Wish I Was Not Terminally-ill/Very Elderly
8. I Regret That I am Dying
9. I Regret That I am Dying Faster Than My Enemies
10. I Wish I Hadn't Had to Watch Tom Brady Win so Many Super Bowls
I hope you find these as touching and thought-provoking as I did. Be sure to share them with your friends and family!
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