Recently, I have read many pieces, such as The Guardian’s “What is Your Biggest Regret?”, Today’s “Biggest Regrets”, and Forbes’s “The 25 Biggest Regrets in Life.” They all encompass people in their elder years, and what they wish they had done differently. Much of what I read is what (I imagine) most people would expect. For instance, many wished that they had spent less time worrying, and also that they had spent more time with their family and friends. As other examples, there were many comments about longing to have taken more career risks, wanting to have pursued passions rather than conveniences, and wishing to have more often spoken their minds.
Conversely, many trends surprised me. People surveyed and interviewed often expressed their desires to have traveled more. Many also wished that they had done more make a difference in society. And contrary to what’s now universal, plenty of elderly people regretted spending time on social media.
Reading the real words of real people has made me rethink some of my own choices. It is compelling to wonder, for one, if I am too passive in my aspirations to travel. Who am I to think that all the big trips I have in mind are for another decade, as some kind of reward for years and years of work? I now want to travel as often and far as possible, consistently exposed to something unfamiliar.
via. Spotahome
Moreover, what deeply sinks in is that the choices we’re bound to make are not ideal. I want to know how we attune ourselves to doing what we should do, assuming that there is something we should do, and that knowing the regrets of the elderly is not enough. For example, in certain areas over the past few days, I have tried to motivate myself to make better choices—based on what I have learned. While reading the pieces has certainly made a huge difference, remembering them hasn’t always been enough, to shake me out of my over analyzing paralysis. In fact, I have made better progress more recently, by promising myself to do certain things. I wonder what it will take for all of us to succeed.