Forever Skills

13Implementation

‘Implementation beats oration.’

Aesop

Bronnie Ware is an Australian care giver who worked in palliative care. Or, in her words, with ‘those who had gone home to die’.

She looked after people in the last three to 12 weeks of their lives. During that time, she recorded their dying wisdom and shared their regrets, in the hope that we all might learn from them, in a blog she created called Inspiration and Chai.

The blog gathered so much attention that she collated her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The book became a bestseller and has been translated into 29 languages. The film rights were optioned. This changed not only the lives of the people all over the world who read it, but also her own.

The ‘most common regret of all’ of the dying, according to her blog, was, ‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.’

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.

Bronnie took action: she created a blog and wrote a book. What she implemented with the knowledge she had gained changed everything.

There are thousands of care givers all around the world who work with the dying. ...