Regret is one of those things that we may feel after we’ve looked back on our lives. When someone passes away, we can only imagine what they are going through during those last moments. But there’s a lot of people who, upon their deathbed, express so many regrets in life. Sometimes, we think we should avoid talking about death, but when we start to think about everything, this idea of regret is something that we should never have to live with. When someone we know passes away, it brings everything into focus. What are some of the most important lessons we can learn right now so that we don’t need to live a life of regret?
Worrying Is a Waste of Time
There are so many aspects of life that we think too much about. When we see someone on their deathbed, they can make us think about all the worries we have in life, and we may think that the small things don’t need sweating over, there may be bigger things in life that require us to take action, but action and worry are two different things. There are things in life that we need to take action on. In terms of death, we may think about the person that we are losing, and we feel that there has to be some form of redemption for them, for example, a wrongful death lawyer. But when we split worry and action into two different behaviors, this can help us make a plan going forward. We can worry about someone and whether they are going to die or not, but does worrying actually solve anything? It’s far better for us to take action and make a plan. Worrying is the emotion that we go through because we’re not planning how to solve that problem. So rather than being lost in worry, make a decision to take some form of action.
Forgive Yourself
You can feel guilty for not being able to save someone, especially with people who have decided to take their lives. And we can feel horrible for not being able to do something. But we can be very sensitive to the feelings of everybody around us, apart from the one person who really matters: ourselves. The problem is if we lose someone around us, we feel that we should have done more. But the most important thing we need to do in our lives is to forgive ourselves because guilt is something that can very easily chip away at us until our dying day. When we feel guilty about something that is beyond our control, learning the lesson to forgive ourselves can instigate a very important healing process. And it’s because you’re not able to control these other people, it’s about yourself and no one else you have control over.
Focus on Happiness Right Now, Not in the Future
This is one of the biggest lessons we can learn. If you are someone who is always focused on the future, setting goals, and looking beyond the horizon, you can plan for certain eventualities, but the big problem in looking forward is that you will forget to be present. But what happens is we will give ourselves permission to be happy once we’ve achieved a certain thing. When we start putting goals in place, we will think that we will be happy once we’ve done X, Y, and Z, but the problem occurs when you start to put more goals in place. That list of things will never end. This is why it’s important for you to be happy while doing something. You can be happy while you start to get healthier or be happy while you change jobs. And rather than waiting for something that may or may not come, you have the ability to make a difference in your life now.
Do Not Put Life Off
We don’t just put off our happiness, there are many things that we do that we put off until “the next go.” For example, changing careers, or changing your lifestyle. Now is the optimum moment. You may think that you’re waiting for things to get better so you’re in the right condition to start your business or change your workout routine, but the reality is that you are waiting until you are not afraid to do something. But as we get older, we need to remember that there is no time like the present. And it’s such a cliché, but it’s those things that really matter when we see someone we know close to death, or we have experienced a loss recently. If we realize that life is precious, then the lesson is obvious, we need to make the most of it.
