This blog may be uncomfortable for some but something we all need to hear. We all are going to die at some point. We have a limited amount of time on this earth. We won’t be here forever. The biggest motivation I have found to try and be the best version of myself is thinking about the end of my life. I’m a Christian. When my time comes, I strive to meet Jesus face to face and have him say, well done good and faithful servant.

I would also like to think that at the end of my life I will get introduced to who I could have been.

I could be introduced to the better version of who I could have been. The version that squeezed everything I could have out of life. The person that took every opportunity to better themselves, better others around them, and leave a positive impact on this world.

I could also be introduced to the regrettable version of who I could have been. The person that decided to play it safe, the one that was too scared or to lazy to embrace opportunities as they were presented.

In this scenario I know I would like to be introduced to the regrettable version of myself. That way I knew that I did everything during the time given to me to live life to the fullest with the talents God gave me.

Thinking about the end of life is uncomfortable for many of us. We tend to push thoughts of how fragile we are to the back of our mind. We say, I am young. I have so many years left. I don’t need to worry about it right now. We think that we have time to break bad habits, reconcile relationships, and to try something new. In doing this we get some sort of comfort in thinking we have plenty of time. There is no sense of urgency when you think you have time.

In reality, we don’t know how much time we have. You see tradgedies on the news every day. You hear stories and obituaries of folks who left this earth too soon. Here is a question for you. How many people have deep regrets as they lay on their death bed? Probably a lot more than you would think. Do you want to be one of those people? I know I don’t. That is why I live each day trying to create a life in which my death bed scenario plays out without many regrets. Bonnie Ware’s intenational bestseller The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed By the Dearly Departing outlines the biggest regrets people have on their death bed. The top five are:

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.

This list shows us that we should live a life with courage to be ourselves, a mindset to see what is truly important, an outlook to build and maintain relationships, and a realization that we have the power to dictate our own happiness.

A life well lived will have obstacles and resistance. To live a life without regret requires that we face challenges. But what I have realized is that the pain of breaking through any amount of resistance will never be as heart-wrenching as lying on my death bed with regrets. I am no where near perfect, but this has started to build a habit of courage that has shown me how much more capable I am then I ever realized. We all are. We just need a sense of urgency to get out of our own way.