If you spend enough time on LinkedIn or Facebook, you will run into an article like this. It goes deep into five common things that people who are dying tend to say. They are all valid points and should make you think about how you are spending your time. However, they are very broad statements, and you most likely won’t know you committed one of these mistakes until it is too late. Since this blog is committed to sensible and actionable insights, I took a different approach.
Every day, we are faced with choices that basically boil down to playing it safe and easy, or taking a risk to achieve something we want but know we might not obtain. With that theme in mind, I present, "5 Things People Probably DON’T Say On Their Deathbeds."
1. I wish I slept more.
We often sacrifice certain activities or ideas in order to get more rest and sleep. We know we should go to the gym in the morning, but we convince ourselves that we need that extra hour of hibernation. Ideally, we would love to work on a hobby or business idea in the evening but we decide to lie down and watch Netflix instead. This doesn’t make you a bad person or a lazy individual. However, if you constantly trade in opportunity for rest, you will be well rested and unsatisfied when it comes time to sleep for eternity. Working out, taking up a hobby, and launching a business are ideas that may sacrifice some rest in the short term, but will provide happiness and satisfaction in the long term.
2. I should have eaten more late night snacks.
If you are like most people, the battle against snacking is a never-ending fight. If we have a bad day, we comfort ourselves with food. If we have a good day, we celebrate with food. Again, we are human beings, and we should not get down on ourselves when this urge arises. Yet, it is worth taking a second to determine if that late night snack, extra helping, or mid-day fast food run is actually bringing us happiness. Certain foods release a hit of dopamine into your brain, which basically gives you a quick dose of pleasure. This is why it is natural to get excited about things like ice cream and pizza. This happiness is short-lived, but the sadness or anxiety you feel from looking the way you do will last much longer. If you are going to reward yourself with food, make it a delicious meal with friends and family. You will never regret eating healthy and spending time with those you care about.
3. I didn’t go on social media enough.
Like food, social media is designed to release that hit of dopamine every time we open an app or receive a notification. According to AdWeek, we will spend an average of FIVE YEARS on social media platforms. Stop and think about what you could accomplish in five years. Furthermore, when is the last time you got a meaningful experience out of scrolling through a social media feed. If you are looking for more time in your day to pursue a certain activity or hobby, you may want to add up how much time you spend you spend on your social media accounts. You will never regret NOT going on Facebook.
4. I should have stayed angrier about stuff for longer.
Like the items listed above, this one falls directly into the ‘we are all human’ category. It is natural to get and stay angry at people for events that have occurred in our past. You may think that stewing over past events is harmless, but you are robbing yourself of countless hours of positive thinking. When we allow our minds to get angry about something we cannot control, we are using all of our energy on something that is basically useless. We could be using our minds to solve our daily issues, create new routines to reach our goals, or simply grant our brains the occasional rest throughout the day. You will never regret letting a negative experience go.
5. I wish I hadn’t taken that risk.
This one is tricky. The term risk can be taken several different ways. For the sake of this post, we are categorizing a risk as trying something new when you know it might not work. This could be joining a new type of gym, attempting to monetize a skill, sharing your ideas with the world (or just your friends), or anything else that involves you stepping out of your comfort zone to possibly fail. It’s not easy taking risks and odds are, the more you take, the more you likely you are to fail at some point. However, at the end of the road, I highly doubt you will be upset that you tried. If you try and fail, at least you tried. But if you never try, you will definitely fail.
6. Conclusion.
I could go on, but I believe you understand the main point I am trying to make. I hope I have awoken something inside of you. Keep in mind that everyone’s life clock is ticking down to zero. Start thinking about what you do everyday, is it making you happy, and when it comes time to judge how you spent your time, will you regret it?
About Me
Kyle is a youth/education public speaker and blog writer. His goal is use these mediums to inspire high school and college students to think differently about the choices they are about to make and the next steps in their lives.
Thoughts on this topic? Have a suggestion of a future blog post? Interested in learning more about Kyle’s talks? E-mail me at Kyle@KyleGrappone.com and be sure to visit KyleGrappone.com!
The views expressed in this blog, and all my content are mine and do not reflect the views and opinions of any companies and/or educational institutions I have had current or past connections with.
