“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.” - Steve Jobs

We humans are living a lie every second of every minute of our lives, and that lie is that we have enough time to do what we want, to have what we desire and to be the person we want to be. The illusion of time is one we are all affected by. 

It is no wonder then, that we might go through life procrastinating some of the most important things in life. Letting life slip this way is something we are all doing in some sort of way. The result is that our whole lives pass by us without us having lived it fully.



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The other problem with us is that there is so much noise in today’s world that we can’t really listen to our inner voice. We end up doing things that we don’t really want to do. Our lives stop being our lives at that point, and dogma takes over. The result is that during the ‘fall’ period of our lives, we look back and wish we had done things differently.



Let’s look at some of the most common regrets that people have.



1. Not Doing More Things You Love


Our work life is really important because it kind of makes us who we are in life as it sets our identity according to what we do. But one of the rather more important things about work is that it helps us earn money that in turn enables us to buy products and services.

All this is important of course but in today’s world, we are overdoing everything. Since this is the age of consumerism, people are buying things that they don’t really need causing them to be able to earn more money than they really need and hence they are having to work harder than ever before.

This has a very big adverse effect in that we don’t have time anymore in doing other things that we really love, which can be as simple as listening to music or more time taking like travelling. When people look back at their lives, they regret this. They realise that it was in the smaller things that the joys of life really lie.


2. Not Staying In Touch With Friends

Friends are a really important part of our lives. We make new friends throughout our lives but the ones made in school and college are really special. But as life progresses, everyone gets busy doing their own thing.



We are kind of separated from each other as we take different paths in life. Although social media is huge these days, and it is easier than ever to connect with them, we stray away from a lot of our friends.



Later in life, people realise that it wouldn’t have taken a lot on their parts to manage a little more time to hang out with their buddies and have a good time. All that is left is to sigh and look at old photographs.



3. Not Quitting That Meaningless Job To Pursue Dreams


I think I can safely say that work is generally considered boring. We would rather be doing a million other things than work at a meaningless and unfulfilling job.


But if you do what you love, then it wouldn’t we work anymore, or at least not boring anymore because you would be invested in it with all your heart and soul. You would be passionate about it and it would give you a sense of achievement that you actually care about.



The thing is that most people are stuck in their jobs because they don’t have enough courage to take risks and pursue their dreams. They would rather spend 40 hours a week behind a desk, staring at a computer screen than to say “F*** it” and just start something afresh. 



Later on after retiring, when people look back at what they achieved career wise, they are left with regret. They then realise that they could have achieved a lot if they had just taken that leap of faith at some point or the other. Their whole identities would be so different and hence their lives. 



4. I Wish I Had Taken Better Care of My Health


A healthy body and mind is of utmost importance in life but as with most other things, it requires time and effort on our parts to achieve that. And since we are the biggest procrastinators, we never really seem to achieve that goal, or achieve it fully. 



As I mentioned before, there are a lot of distractions in our lives today that the stuff that we really ought to do are often neglected completely. We only ‘look into it’ when the situation comes where we don’t have a choice. 



Many people in their old age regret that if they had taken better care of their health, they would have stayed free from many different diseases and illness.



5. I Wish I Had Lived A Happier Life


This one is really common among older people. They realise that all the stuff that they spent time on stressing, didn’t really mean much in the long run. This is really true. We spend so much energy and time fussing about the smallest of things which don’t really matter. This is so emotionally draining.



Many things in life are beyond our control and hence worrying about them won’t make a difference. We all know it yet we do it anyways. This takes away so many moments from our lives where we could have been happy instead doing other things.



I remember a saying which is really apt in this scenario. “It doesn’t matter how many years you have added to your life, but the life you have added to your years.”