3 Regrets people have on their deathbed.
1. They wish they’d appreciated their health when they had it. “They didn’t understand how lucky they were to have a healthy body,” McFadden says. “That’s the No. 1 thing I hear.”
2. They wish they hadn’t worked their life away. Some people worked intensively throughout the years leading up to their retirement, leaving them with limited time to appreciate life. “Some of us have to work all the time just because of the world we live in,” says McFadden. “But I think you can still live a fulfilled life if you can, on a daily basis, live in gratitude for the little things.”
3. They regret how they navigated their relationships. Her patients frequently expressed misgivings over “not saying sorry when they should have, not reconnecting sooner to their estranged sister, or caring too much about what people thought,” McFadden says. “Not living the life they wanted, but living the life people around them wanted.”