Want to avoid regrets on your deathbed? Then you should read this…
- elinor harari
- Jul 1, 2023
- 4 min read
Last week I held my first-ever Positive Psychology workshop, a significant milestone for me on my way to fulfilling my dream of infusing Positive Psychology into the world.
I know it may sound naive, but I truly believe that this science of the workings of our brain can contribute to our personal and collective happiness. This workshop has been on the back burner of my mind for a year. However, it was only now that I brought myself to go for it. And you know why? because of a bunch of excuses for not doing it, such as: "I'm not ready yet", "it's not the right time", "people won't be interested" and so on. The truth is, I was just afraid to take the leap.
Eventually, a conversation I had with a client about her desire to plan a workshop and a podcast I listened to pushed me to stop telling myself stories. I made a quick decision to do it without overthinking. I set a date and sent the invitations before even knowing what I would do. I worked hard for two weeks on planning it, and I was excited and nervous when the day arrived. But, the magic happened. It was a success and went precisely as I had hoped, leaving me feeling inspired and confident to continue pursuing it.
This made me realize I wasted a year holding myself back. The only thing that stopped me from pursuing my dream was ME.
Giving yourself permission to dream will bring you motivation, passion, and success. Striving to achieve your dreams is essential to your personal growth and fulfillment. Taking the first step already gets you out of your comfort zone. As a result, you learn about your strengths, weaknesses, and abilities.
The challenges you may encounter on the way, such as confronting obstacles or even dealing with failure, will also benefit you by requiring you to think creatively, explore new ideas, and challenge conventional thinking. This will help you develop resilience, determination, and perseverance, qualities that will help you navigate future challenges in other areas of your life.
Dreams bring you meaning, value, and purpose, or in other words: happiness. Standing in their way will make you miserable. You shouldn't try to run away from them because you can't. They're what you want and deserve, they're meant for you. Instead, you should turn towards them and face the fears holding you back from moving forward. Yes, it takes courage to follow your dreams, but if you think back on something new you did, I'm sure you'll remember that you had fears before that as well, but you didn't let them stop you. Your fears are just roadblocks on your path to achieving your dreams, you can overcome them and make your dreams a reality. Know that you are capable of chasing your dreams. And if you need some affirmations to support you in the moments fear is taking over, you can use the meditation link I put below.
Not sure what your dream is? Well, you're not alone. I didn't know mine either until I participated in Mel Robbins' "Best Decade Ever" program. She introduced an exercise that helped me tap back into my dreams and desires and get the flow going again.
This exercise is so simple and effective that I gotta share it with you:
Every day, preferably as part of your morning routine, you sit down with a pen and paper and write five dreams. They could be as small as "I want my baby to wake up an hour later each morning" or as big as "I want to run my own business". You can write the same ones every day or different ones, it doesn't matter. Most importantly, is that you write five dreams a day for at least five days. This repetition will strengthen your "dreaming" muscles and help you create a habit of reconnecting with your desires. It might sound odd to write five dreams when you feel that you don't even have one, but trust me (and thousands of others), it works! Writing about your dreams is an opportunity to learn more about yourself, your ambitions, priorities, what motivates you, and how far you're willing to go to achieve them
Hopefully, by now, I convinced you to follow your dreams. But if I haven't, let me leave you with the number one regret of people, from different walks of life, on their deathbeds: "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me". As reported by Bronnie Ware, a palliative nurse that documented conversations with hundreds of people on their last days, people had regretted leaving their dreams unfulfilled. They didn't regret failing, taking risks, not having more money, or not reaching a specific position, but rather on their unfulfilled dreams.
Luckily, you can still change the end of your story. So go on, dream big, and make it your reality.
More recommended resources:
Book: "The Power Is Within You" - Louise L. Hay
Meditation: Overcoming Fear To Follow Your Dreams
Podcast: The Mel Robbins podcast - "Giving up is not an option"
Truly inspiring, depicts such a small change that can have such a significant effect!!
Great article 👏🏻👏🏻 True and doable , if one pushes towards and believes that in your 1 and only!!! lifetime you should dream do the best to make it real!!!