Life Choices - A Perspective from the Departing

By Bronnie Ware

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 

 This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. 

 It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

 2. I wish I didn't work so hard. 

 This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. 

 By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle. 

 3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

 Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result. 

 We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win. 

 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 

 Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. 

 It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships. 

 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. 

 This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. 

 When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying. 

 Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

Sign Language for All

We as humans are wired to automate our behavior. In fact this automatic actions free up our brains so that we can concentrate on daily business that are not predictable. For instance people do not usually think about the act of speech, of eating, walking, or driving to a place of work (sometimes). By doing these deeds over and over again, we have carved a well worn path in our synapses. These paths are so commonly used that little or no thinking is required. As such, these actions become automatic or second nature.

When we are confronted with an anomaly, things change. Something as simple as talking becomes as activity to think about, if we happen to be in a situation where new vocabularies are required. A given environment may require a certain decorum - our speaking habit would probably be disrupted, as a result. This is the case when you, unknowingly, speak to a co-worker or neighbour, only to find out that the person is deaf.

Unless you have spent some time learning and practicing sign-language, you will most likely feel lost. In case you do understand sign language, there are many different versions of it to choose from (depending on your region). Furthermore, there are formal ways of signing, there are slang words, there are age related communication. Deaf culture is an entire world in itself. Chances are you probably know little about all this - unless you are part of the Deaf Community.

Thanks to innovative minds at the University of Houston in Texas; there is a new invention to help this situation. The device called MyVoice converts voice to sign-language, and sign-language into voice. This device, which fits into a human hand uses audio and video technology to relate communication between the deaf and the non-deaf.

MyVoice is wired to detect, recognize and translate signs into their corresponding voice equivalent. The same is done with voice; and the signed meaning is played on the monitor of MyVoice. This invention is still in the early stages. Application for a wider array of uses is being developed at the moment. For those of us who believe in bridging the communication gap, here is a golden opportunity to contribute to such an innovative project.


Website: www.uh.edu
 Contact: pemery@uh.edu

A Better Way

From the moment a child is old enough to go to school, the child is enrolled in elementary school. That journey continues until the individual becomes an adult. At that point the "adult" may now attend some university or start working. Now, this pipe-line seems understandable enough. However, a thinking person would start to wonder: Is this what life is about? Or: Is this all I got my education for? To work at some establishment for 20 years, and retire?
There has to be a better way. For me, the model of working at some place for that long is absurd. The things I want to do will have to wait till weekends or holidays before they can be done. Things like visiting family, fishing, helping to build habitats for those in need... etc. Living a weekend life for 20 years does not suit me.
So, I started looking. Each day I would think of different ways to improve my living.
For those who have thought about extra income, you may have seen different concepts on television and online. Many of these plans have one thing in common: They demand a lot of your time and money. Usually, work takes up much of the day time. Money is usually spoken for, before you are paid. So, these are high value commodities that most of us cannot afford.

So much for "there has to be a better way". It looks as if some of us are destined to be ordinary people, living an ordinary life. Maybe watching the rich and famous is all that can be done. Remember that show - The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Robin Leach's voice is still stuck in my head. If you don't know about it, that is alright. Just watch Reality TV or Cribs. (Is that still on?). Anyway, there has to be a better way than going to an employment place that you don't like; and doing it for the better part of your adult life.

Got 20 seconds?

According to Robert Kiyosaki, there is a quadrant that shows how this working life plays out. On the left side are employers and the self employed. On the right are the business owners and the investors. To be on the "right" side is the path to the better way of living that has been my quest. Now I have found this path, and I am on it. Ask me how, and I'll gladly show you.

Twittter Down!

You are all well aware that twitter went down for some hours on the 22 of June 2012. Twitter was out of operation for over an hour - the longest break in service for the social media group. According to Mazen Rawashdeh, VP of Twitter engineering, it was a cascading bug. On the other hand, a hacking group know as UGNazi claimed responsibility for the glitch that lasted about 70 minutes.

Regardless of what the truth may be, it is with pleasure that those with twitter accounts were able to return from the tweetpocalypse within 2 hours. Life, it seems, could not go on without twitter.

While the social-media addicts, accounts holders and businesses were in despair over the recent tweetpocalypse (twittpocalypse), a select few were laughing there way to the bank - just like the dancing banana above. There is no better satisfaction than to know that neutral situations translate into profit for you. In these pages, you will find links that may place you squarely in the driver's seat when it comes to updating your facebook, twitter, or any other social-media account you may have.