In a 2009 blog post that by 2012 had been read by eight million people, Bronnie Ware, a palliative care specialist, identified the Top Five Regrets of people who were dying based on her experience with them at the end of their life. The top five regrets were:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

How do so many of us reach the end of our life filled with so much regret? The cause is much simpler than you might think - it is because we pursue success as defined by others. When we define success for ourselves, it becomes easier to focus on where we are going, what matters the most in our lives and align our decisions with the pursuit of our definition.

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