Top Five Regrets of the Dying: Bronnie Ware (Book Review)
There are many books which have changed the course of human thinking. There are some books which have proved to be a milestone for personal development. ‘Top Five Regrets of the Dying ‘ is one such book that teaches how to live life. This is one of the best sellers and reading the book at a young age will help you to lead your life more meaningfully.
The Author: The author of this book is Bronnie Ware who is an Australian author, songwriter and motivational speaker. She wrote this book by putting together the experiences she had with the patients on their deathbed when she was working as a palliative carer. The other books that she penned are ‘Your Year for Change’, Bloom’ and ‘A Little Something’. But what brought her to limelight was the book ‘Top Five Regrets of the Dying’. The 8 years she spent in the hospital gave her a lot of material to know about a dying man’s regrets.
Palliative care is a place where those people are kept who have no hope of recovering and who are on their deathbeds. While serving them as a nurse Bronnie Ware had conversations with them and asked them about what are the things that they wanted to do but couldn’t do. In short, what are the things that they regret the most? After getting answers from several of the dying men and women she came to the top five regrets which were common in all of them. And hence, the book ‘Top Five Regrets of the Dying’ came into existence. The book which was hailed by the readers with great enthusiasm has been translated into 27 languages.
I personally recommend you to read the book to get into the real experience Bronnie Ware wants to share with you. But here are the top five regrets. These are of course not the ones that we may think like Deep sea diving, or bungee jumping, or better car, better houses….No…No.. but they are quite surprising and an eye opener for all of us let’s get a peep into what are the regrets and one thing I would like to suggest you let’s not have these regrets in our lives.
The Book Content:
Regret 1:The topmost regret the people had which was common for them was…. “I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself not the life others expected of me.” most of the time we live our life as others dictate it or others see the life and we forget ourselves. This was the biggest regret the people had. People rated the life on a parameter that others set for them.
So, let’s make sure that we live a life on our own terms and conditions. Let’s honour our dreams, let’s honour our feelings.
Regret 2: The second biggest regret people had was… “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” Most of the people believe that hard work brings success to them and they worship the poster boy Thomas Edison for his work Ethic. Most of the male patients had this regrets. While working for money and working hard they forgot to enjoy their children’s youth and the partner’s companionship most of the people wanted to spend their life with their loved ones but sadly they worked and worked and worked till death.. So let’s make up our mind that relations and people and our joy is more than the work that we do.
Regret 3: The third most important thing they wanted to do but couldn’t do was “I wish I had had the courage to express my feelings.” most of the people spent their lives without opening their hearts to their loved ones. They suppressed that deep feelings and buried them within. They wanted to express themselves but couldn’t muster up enough courage. But in the evening of life they think whatever feelings they had love, hatred, anger, pain they should have expressed it.
So my dear friends let’s express ourselves. Let’s open our hearts let’s speak before it’s too late.
Regret 4: “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends” This was the 4th biggest regret people had on their deathbed. Most of the time people make themselves so busy in this or that and routine that they hardly can think about the friends.Many people had this deep regret that they didn’t give friendship the time and effort that they deserved. Many of the dying people miss their friends badly. ,Hence, let’s cherish friendship, let’s spend time with them, let’s enjoy friendship. Because friends give vent to our burdens and tensions and worries.
Regret 5: The Last of the top regrets is “I wish that I had let myself be happier.” Most of the people are trapped by dogmas. Living the life of laws and rules most of the time made then sat people regretted being so wise throughout the life as wisdom brought a lot of sadness their way and they wanted to be happier. Foolishness and silliness was also ok because that too could bring happiness in the life. What we can learn from this is let’s do something to make our self happy. Today, let’s get into the rain, let’s chase butterflies, let’s walk barefoot, let’s be foolish, Sometimes let people laugh at us. Let people mock us. let us live a life that we want.
I hope this short analysis of the book will help you and push you to read the original book…..
Be happy…. Goodbye.
