The Power of Regret: What Can We Learn from People's Final Thoughts?

Hospitals often have a unique perspective on life, where people are about to leave this world behind. The interviews conducted with patients who are nearing death can reveal some profound insights into what truly matters in life. When asked about the last things that went through their minds, many people shared one common regret: not taking chances and not pursuing their dreams.

For most of us, regret is a heavy burden to carry. We often wonder what could have been if we had only taken that chance or pursued our passion. This regret can stem from not doing enough, but it's also true that some regrets are about not doing too much. However, the most common type of regret people share is of not taking those chances and not expanding themselves to new experiences. It seems that many people wish they had tried things and believed in themselves enough to take risks.

This realization can be a powerful jolt for some of us. It's a wake-up call that reminds us to make the most of our time on this earth. But how do we keep the momentum going after we've taken that first step? We need to find our why – what drives us, what motivates us, and what gives our life purpose. Without a clear reason for doing something, it's easy to lose steam and fall back into old habits.

For some of us, our "why" is tied to our loved ones. For me, it's about not wanting my family to go through the same struggles I did when my mom was injured in a car accident. We couldn't afford her surgery, and she suffered from diabetes and weight-related problems as a result. Seeing my mom struggle made me feel helpless and motivated me to find a way to break that cycle. Now, I'm driven to succeed not just for myself but for those who depend on me.

This realization can be a powerful motivator. It's the spark that ignites our passion and drives us to take action. But it's not enough to simply have an initial push – we need a system in place to keep us going. We need to develop a plan for achieving our goals, whether it's setting aside dedicated time to work on our projects or finding support from loved ones.

When we look at life from a macroscopic perspective – considering the vastness of the universe and the many things that exist beyond our individual struggles – our problems seem smaller by comparison. The little dramas that may have seemed insurmountable before can now be seen as insignificant in the grand scheme of things. By taking this high-level view, we can begin to let go of the things that are holding us back and focus on what truly matters.

Ultimately, it's up to each individual to find their own motivation and purpose. But by understanding the power of regret and how it can drive us to make changes in our lives, we can take a crucial step towards creating a more fulfilling and meaningful existence.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe biggest difference between somebody who is just doing a job and trying to run a company or create our channel like YouTube or whatever you guys know what it is now the biggest difference is your tolerance to ambiguity okay your tolerance to ambiguity and how much can you handle not knowing that's what defines an entrepreneur versus somebody who's just doing a job okay and you can be entrepreneur even doing a job for example if you're a Python developer you can be an entrepreneur and you can be getting different clients and who you're working with you can land jobs not just by sitting and sending resumes maybe you can start networking with people around you there are a lot of ways to be an entrepreneur but again it's a lot about handling that uncertainty and how do you deal with it you have this feeling in your stomach like you're gonna puke not knowing or can you be like this is okay I'm gonna find out what the road is ahead I'm gonna plan something out I'm gonna have a vision and I'm gonna trust my instincts okay so it's a lot of that you know I failed multiple businesses I used to have a channel called chest a steak that has like 150 subs it's dead now go look at it bye I started other things other YouTube videos right remember we would make so many YouTube videos we were trying to do this Hostgator affiliate marketing stuff so many we would literally spend hours upon hours we've spent weeks recording these videos scripting it out trying to make this business how many businesses have we gone through we started Amazon FBA business we started quantum boroughs we started developer products which was about like launching products we reached out to like so many manufacturers in China and built all these relationships only to not lead anywhere and fail but those failures other people see and they go to take a sip of their they go told you so yeah right to take a sip of their little told you soap whereas for us it's a learning experience and kind of battle scars so to speak without those you don't like we won't be here this channel wouldn't be here those references yeah you have to get those references without them you don't really know where you're going and I mean great like they didn't build the platform like chess Tasik and failed but that's the difference between let's say me and somebody else or maybe you know maybe you and somebody else right maybe you both were let's say thirty at some point and then you became thirty one Dave went from being thirty to thirty one without failing and you went from thirty thirty one while failing a few things okay and there's a lot of honor in failure failure is the only way to proceed forward when you go to the gym and if you're picking up five pound dumbbells and curling with them you're never gonna be failing so that's great but are you gonna be making any progress there's gonna be zero progress that you're gonna be making okay so failure is actually your indicator that you're going in the right direction I'm gonna say it again failure is your indicator that you're going in the right direction okay failure is your GPS in life failure and feeder is your GPS in life not Google Maps not ways not Apple Maps not whatever other maps that exist definitely not Apple Maps even though I love Apple they just didn't do a very good job with that freaking app failure and fear is your navigation in life all right as long as you can stand making yourself uncomfortable you're growing when you're very comfortable where you are you are not growing not growing is not wrong but not growing is not making progress if you're okay with that good for you I'm not okay with that my friend is not okay with that my other friend is not okay with that we're okay with going with sleepless nights I bags and all kinds of crazy stuff question is are you if you do want all those results and things that you say you want and the lifestyle that you say you want and the job that you say you want and the impact that you want to make on this world that you say you want why aren't you willing to put in the work that gets you those things do you know it's as easy being exactly where you are as it is going towards your goals in the directions you want to go to it takes the same amount of work as being lazy as it takes to be successful okay lazy person has to go through making these excruciatingly excuses every single goddamn day they go I couldn't do this because I'm busy I couldn't do this because I had all these other tasks and obligations I couldn't go to the gym and make myself look and feel better because I don't know I had to pick up my kids right I couldn't put in this extra work I couldn't update my portfolio I couldn't upgrade my LinkedIn I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't and is just as giant barrage of excuses and when this are sitting there looking you dead and I telling you this you know they're bullshitting you and actually them to know that they're lying you both know but you make this non verbal agreement with your eyes that you're just gonna both agree to look the other way make each other feel comfortable where you are you're not fat you're just but it's like people will say things like that okay and it's not true if you're fat in your shape that's something you need to work on if you're not financially secure if you're not doing the job you need to be doing or you want to be doing or the things you need to be doing that's something that has to change and you need friends and other people around you kind of calling you out on that regardless you have all these people getting this fake cushion this fake whatever yet you go to all these places it's like hospitals and they interview people who are about to die and they're right down what were the last things on their mind and what's the last thing they're leaving this planet with and you know what's a number one thing people say they say it's regret what kind of regret regret of doing too much or regret of not doing too much and you know what the regret most of the times is its of not doing too much of wishing that they tried to do the things and expand themselves to places where they thought they couldn't and things in then never really took a chance and tried them never gave themselves the confidence believed in something then themselves enough to do those things okay and not taking those chances so it's a morbid topic but I do want you to sometimes think of that because for some of us it can jolt us I know it jolts me and gets me moving but that's that initial spark that initial motivation then later you have to find your why for why you're doing something and that's gonna keep you going it's kind of when you open a door you need that initial energy but to keep the door open you need a doorknob in place so right now maybe you're in a place where you're procrastinating and you're not you're just scurrying along and you're just doing your 9:00 to 5:00 and you're just stuck in this in this limbo and you need that initial push so this something that I might say that might be coming off a little harsh but it might be that push that you need then later what you need to do is develop a system for why you're doing this okay maybe you're doing this for your family I know I am doing this and a lot of things for getting my parents or retirement I'm doing this to give my family support because when I got to United States we got in a crazy car accident where everybody in the family came out okay except for my mom she had two disks or two back disks broken and we couldn't afford her surgery so guess what we waited 12 years and in those 12 years you know what happened because her back disc was broken she couldn't really move a lot she ended up developing diabetes diabetes she ended up gaining a lot of weight that came with a whole set of another all these other types of problems and seeing that it's kind of broke me as I was growing up because it made me have this really deep feeling of helplessness and I want you guys to understand that it's possible to get out of that okay like for me when I was feeling that deep feeling of helplessness I'm like how could I get out of this what's my why what's my why that could keep me going and doing the things that I'm doing for example staying up till 5:00 a.m. getting two hours of sleep and then just going the next day I'm thinking about those things I don't want that to happen to anybody who's close to me where I literally can't if like if not help them financially something like surgery if we could have gone if we had the money we could have gone this a lot earlier like one night in the hospital was something like thirty thousand dollars and we just couldn't afford it and that really really really really really really blows that just sucks somebody who's so close to you somebody who you love so much and you just watch them agonize over this long course of 12 years so again for me that's what keeps me going that's what keeps me motivated I don't want this to happen to anybody again and that's why I'm like I want to be making a lot of money so I don't have just enough for myself for but for other people around me and maybe that could be your Y or something like this could be your Y as well you know you need that initial push to get going and then you have that Y that's like that door knob that keeps that door open okay that keeps your motivation in place it's the system that keeps you going so kind of think about those things enjoy that and move on from that and understand that when you look at life from that perspective where everything is so macroscopic and that's such a massive scale you'll start to see your little problems as these very little things if you look at this universe and how it's like there's multi universe is going on that little drama that you might have going on with somebody like at work or a family member or a friend that's nothing that doesn't even exist like the universe doesn't care about that so for you if you can start to see all these things at this high of a level you can start ignoring all the little things that are nagging at you and you can start focusing and going to the things that actually really matter all rightthe biggest difference between somebody who is just doing a job and trying to run a company or create our channel like YouTube or whatever you guys know what it is now the biggest difference is your tolerance to ambiguity okay your tolerance to ambiguity and how much can you handle not knowing that's what defines an entrepreneur versus somebody who's just doing a job okay and you can be entrepreneur even doing a job for example if you're a Python developer you can be an entrepreneur and you can be getting different clients and who you're working with you can land jobs not just by sitting and sending resumes maybe you can start networking with people around you there are a lot of ways to be an entrepreneur but again it's a lot about handling that uncertainty and how do you deal with it you have this feeling in your stomach like you're gonna puke not knowing or can you be like this is okay I'm gonna find out what the road is ahead I'm gonna plan something out I'm gonna have a vision and I'm gonna trust my instincts okay so it's a lot of that you know I failed multiple businesses I used to have a channel called chest a steak that has like 150 subs it's dead now go look at it bye I started other things other YouTube videos right remember we would make so many YouTube videos we were trying to do this Hostgator affiliate marketing stuff so many we would literally spend hours upon hours we've spent weeks recording these videos scripting it out trying to make this business how many businesses have we gone through we started Amazon FBA business we started quantum boroughs we started developer products which was about like launching products we reached out to like so many manufacturers in China and built all these relationships only to not lead anywhere and fail but those failures other people see and they go to take a sip of their they go told you so yeah right to take a sip of their little told you soap whereas for us it's a learning experience and kind of battle scars so to speak without those you don't like we won't be here this channel wouldn't be here those references yeah you have to get those references without them you don't really know where you're going and I mean great like they didn't build the platform like chess Tasik and failed but that's the difference between let's say me and somebody else or maybe you know maybe you and somebody else right maybe you both were let's say thirty at some point and then you became thirty one Dave went from being thirty to thirty one without failing and you went from thirty thirty one while failing a few things okay and there's a lot of honor in failure failure is the only way to proceed forward when you go to the gym and if you're picking up five pound dumbbells and curling with them you're never gonna be failing so that's great but are you gonna be making any progress there's gonna be zero progress that you're gonna be making okay so failure is actually your indicator that you're going in the right direction I'm gonna say it again failure is your indicator that you're going in the right direction okay failure is your GPS in life failure and feeder is your GPS in life not Google Maps not ways not Apple Maps not whatever other maps that exist definitely not Apple Maps even though I love Apple they just didn't do a very good job with that freaking app failure and fear is your navigation in life all right as long as you can stand making yourself uncomfortable you're growing when you're very comfortable where you are you are not growing not growing is not wrong but not growing is not making progress if you're okay with that good for you I'm not okay with that my friend is not okay with that my other friend is not okay with that we're okay with going with sleepless nights I bags and all kinds of crazy stuff question is are you if you do want all those results and things that you say you want and the lifestyle that you say you want and the job that you say you want and the impact that you want to make on this world that you say you want why aren't you willing to put in the work that gets you those things do you know it's as easy being exactly where you are as it is going towards your goals in the directions you want to go to it takes the same amount of work as being lazy as it takes to be successful okay lazy person has to go through making these excruciatingly excuses every single goddamn day they go I couldn't do this because I'm busy I couldn't do this because I had all these other tasks and obligations I couldn't go to the gym and make myself look and feel better because I don't know I had to pick up my kids right I couldn't put in this extra work I couldn't update my portfolio I couldn't upgrade my LinkedIn I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't and is just as giant barrage of excuses and when this are sitting there looking you dead and I telling you this you know they're bullshitting you and actually them to know that they're lying you both know but you make this non verbal agreement with your eyes that you're just gonna both agree to look the other way make each other feel comfortable where you are you're not fat you're just but it's like people will say things like that okay and it's not true if you're fat in your shape that's something you need to work on if you're not financially secure if you're not doing the job you need to be doing or you want to be doing or the things you need to be doing that's something that has to change and you need friends and other people around you kind of calling you out on that regardless you have all these people getting this fake cushion this fake whatever yet you go to all these places it's like hospitals and they interview people who are about to die and they're right down what were the last things on their mind and what's the last thing they're leaving this planet with and you know what's a number one thing people say they say it's regret what kind of regret regret of doing too much or regret of not doing too much and you know what the regret most of the times is its of not doing too much of wishing that they tried to do the things and expand themselves to places where they thought they couldn't and things in then never really took a chance and tried them never gave themselves the confidence believed in something then themselves enough to do those things okay and not taking those chances so it's a morbid topic but I do want you to sometimes think of that because for some of us it can jolt us I know it jolts me and gets me moving but that's that initial spark that initial motivation then later you have to find your why for why you're doing something and that's gonna keep you going it's kind of when you open a door you need that initial energy but to keep the door open you need a doorknob in place so right now maybe you're in a place where you're procrastinating and you're not you're just scurrying along and you're just doing your 9:00 to 5:00 and you're just stuck in this in this limbo and you need that initial push so this something that I might say that might be coming off a little harsh but it might be that push that you need then later what you need to do is develop a system for why you're doing this okay maybe you're doing this for your family I know I am doing this and a lot of things for getting my parents or retirement I'm doing this to give my family support because when I got to United States we got in a crazy car accident where everybody in the family came out okay except for my mom she had two disks or two back disks broken and we couldn't afford her surgery so guess what we waited 12 years and in those 12 years you know what happened because her back disc was broken she couldn't really move a lot she ended up developing diabetes diabetes she ended up gaining a lot of weight that came with a whole set of another all these other types of problems and seeing that it's kind of broke me as I was growing up because it made me have this really deep feeling of helplessness and I want you guys to understand that it's possible to get out of that okay like for me when I was feeling that deep feeling of helplessness I'm like how could I get out of this what's my why what's my why that could keep me going and doing the things that I'm doing for example staying up till 5:00 a.m. getting two hours of sleep and then just going the next day I'm thinking about those things I don't want that to happen to anybody who's close to me where I literally can't if like if not help them financially something like surgery if we could have gone if we had the money we could have gone this a lot earlier like one night in the hospital was something like thirty thousand dollars and we just couldn't afford it and that really really really really really really blows that just sucks somebody who's so close to you somebody who you love so much and you just watch them agonize over this long course of 12 years so again for me that's what keeps me going that's what keeps me motivated I don't want this to happen to anybody again and that's why I'm like I want to be making a lot of money so I don't have just enough for myself for but for other people around me and maybe that could be your Y or something like this could be your Y as well you know you need that initial push to get going and then you have that Y that's like that door knob that keeps that door open okay that keeps your motivation in place it's the system that keeps you going so kind of think about those things enjoy that and move on from that and understand that when you look at life from that perspective where everything is so macroscopic and that's such a massive scale you'll start to see your little problems as these very little things if you look at this universe and how it's like there's multi universe is going on that little drama that you might have going on with somebody like at work or a family member or a friend that's nothing that doesn't even exist like the universe doesn't care about that so for you if you can start to see all these things at this high of a level you can start ignoring all the little things that are nagging at you and you can start focusing and going to the things that actually really matter all right\n"