The Courage to Live True: Avoiding the Top Regret of the Dying

The number one regret of the dying:

“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

I’ve read this before and have been aware of it for years.

Yet, sitting here, typing it out, looking at the cursor flashing at the end of the sentence, I’m drawn into a contemplative silence.

The word courage is staring back at me, and it scares me.

It’s a cocktail of past regrets and fears that I’m not doing enough now.

Fear that there are things I’m avoiding.

In my life, I’ve traveled 3 distinct paths:

Pleasure

Power

Meaning

It may be an oversimplification to delineate only three, but the depth and width of the three are anything but simple.

I believe these are life’s paths, and we get to choose which path we’ll take.

We’re drawn to meaning.

As Viktor Frankl stated, we have a “will to meaning.”

Something within us says, “I want what I do to have meaning.”