Our last series before we go on hiatus to work on Alexandria is all about life. Yup, that’s right — what makes life worth living, and how do we figure it all out?
Well, I think for all hard problems like this, we need to invert (start from the end) and look at what not to do. In other words, our first chapter is all about regrets.
Thanks to the research at Barking Up The Wrong Tree, we have a good idea of what the top 5 biggest life regrets are:
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 didn’t work 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.
Well, I see three distinct patterns across these five regrets: living the Ubermensch (“I wish I was the person I wanted to be”), being mindful (working too hard/not being happy), and socialization (Staying in touch with friends/reaching out to people).
So, how do we fix each of these? For the first one, I think mindset is everything (so much so, in fact, that it’s the entirety of the next episode!). Being able to ask yourself difficult questions without shying away from them is a superhuman skill that very well might unlock the key to happiness. Questions such as “What sort of person do you want to be remembered as?” and “What do you want to be remembered for?” can help get you to that fabled Ubermensch of yourself.
I think the next two, mindfulness and socialization, revolve around essentially the same concept: how does one make the most of the life they have?
Writers and thinkers have had a few different hypotheses when it comes to all this. Some believe in making each day as long as possible — doing it through emotion, where if you can think, laugh, and cry once every day, you’ll live a full life. Others believe that life needs to be treated as a game, or an adventure, and brought to its most fun and interactive extent. Ultimately, it’s up to you to interpret your own life. But hopefully understanding these regrets have helped you get there.
I already spoiled the next episode — mindset. I’ll see you next week for it!
Apalla 