If you can spare me 6 minutes, you'll get 10 years of your life back

10 years ago , I came across an idea , an idea that changed my life and work forever .

I came across the book by Bronnie Ware , a palliative nurse who spent years with patients in the final weeks of their lives .

When people face their death , something happens , Suddenly , they stop taking life for granted .

The small everyday moments become incredibly valuable because it was the last time they would do anything .

Learning from those who she cared for , she shared the top five regrets of the dying which was eye opening for me .

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

I wish I hadn't worked so hard .

I wish I had the courage to express my feelings .

I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends .

I wish I had let myself be happier .

None of these regrets are about getting that promotion , making more money and being popular in front of others because does it really matter when you're so close to death ?

They're about the moments in the relationships we often neglect in the pursuit of more , more success , more approval from others , more wealth , but it's not about the external goals we didn't reach , it's about the experiences that we missed out on while chasing them .

Like calling your parents and catching up over a nice family meal , living joyfully working on your passions , hanging out with your close friends over a deep conversation , kissing your loved one one more time , having fun and pursuing your hobbies , traveling to explore places you've never been before and if you got a family of your own seeing the smile on your child's face when they finally see you at the end of a long day .

And this points to a very simple truth , that is we spend so much of our time stressing about the future but the magic is in the here and now .

And this brings me to the next point of falling into the trap of being addicted to achievements on the outside and chasing happiness .

We get caught in the trap of thinking , I'll be happy once I reach that goal or when I hit that milestone then I can relax .

But the truth is happiness doesn't come at the finishing line , it's found in the process and who we become along the way .

Take it from my own experience , when I was starting this YouTube channel , I waited years to finally feel ready to post my first video and then when I did , the early days were so tough .

Staying motivated was hard , putting myself out there was hard , but I found that the real joy came when I started focusing less on the big end goal and more on the small wins and the skills I picked up along the way .

Maybe it was getting a really life changing comment from someone on how my video helped them or seeing a tiny bit improvement in each new video .

Those little things made the journey so much more rewarding and in the end I evolved into a different person who learned so much in the process , a person that's almost unrecognizable to myself .

And that's where most people get stuck , waiting for the perfect moment , waiting until they feel ready .

But here's the truth , clarity doesn't come from waiting , it comes from doing .

We often wait for the right time for all the information , for the confidence to magically appear , but that's not how it works .

This path that you're going on isn't something you can always see from the start .

You create it by walking , by doing , by learning from each small step along the way .

Yeah , taking that first step is gonna feel uncomfortable .

You might be afraid of failing and not knowing exactly what to do , but the pain of feeling stuck is always worse than the pain of taking action , because every day you stay in place is the day that you're further away from living the life you really want .

When you start before you're ready , something powerful happens .

You build that momentum and every tiny step makes you feel much more capable , more confident .

It's the vote that you put in yourself for the kind of person that you want to become and suddenly the things that felt overwhelming start to feel manageable .

What felt impossible becomes finally achievable .

And here's the thing , you don't need to know every step , just the next one .

And this brings me back to this beautiful story my dad once told me .

A child asked his mother what her favorite moment in life was , expecting to hear something like , the day I got married or the day that I achieved achieved x .

But the mother simply said , this moment right now .

Because yesterday is gone and tomorrow isn't guaranteed , the only moment we truly have is now .

We often live as if the future is promised to us , as if we'll always have time to do the things that really matter but all we have is now .

So instead of waiting for some distant future when you finally enjoy life and do what you want to do , why not start today ?

So make that call , fill that application , start that side hustle , write that book , share that video , book that flight and spend that time with your loved ones ?

What will your life look like if you weren't worried about what others thought ?

What would it look like if you went all in ?

What would it look like if it was the most fun you ever had ?

At the end of the day , the only person you have to answer to is yourself .

When you look back , it won't be about what you achieved , but about who you became in the process .

The real success of you lies in how you lived each day .

So go live it .

Spend your time doing what really matters to you and don't wait until it's too late because I guarantee you if you waited too long , the only regret you have at the end of your life is that you didn't start earlier .

Thank you so much for being here .

If you enjoyed this video , you might also like this one about the life lessons I wish I knew earlier in my 20s 30s .

I'm Laurie .