Have you ever heard about Bronnie Ware? She is an Australian nurse and counselor – worked in palliative care; taking care of terminally ill people, most of whom had less than 12 weeks to live.
Bronnie did a comprehensive study on the life regrets of her dying patients, looking back on the passed decades of their rich lifes. She was convinced that the regrets of the dying can be invaluable advice for the living. She didn’t know that her study would become a world best selling book.
Why do so many people tend to forget that work is not just about getting the best performance out of our working hours. Merely it is about spending quite a big share of our most valueable lifetime (for the activity we call work). And I would say, it is worth to use this time wisely. So, what can Bronnie’s findings teach us for our own work, leadership and life qualities…?
No 1 life regret: I wish I pursued my dreams and aspirations, and not the life others expected of me.
According to Bronnie, this was by far the most common regret of all. Too often, we tend to live the life others expect of us – and not the life we want to live ourself.
I am sure, there is an infinite number of situations when family members or friends push us to live their life, but I am convinced this happens at least as much in our jobs and working life.
Too many times we are pushed or obliged to complete tasks we are not convinced of, but we think that we simply have to: Yes, it’s because it is our job. Yes, it’s because my boss expects me to do this. Yes, it’s because it saves our team of being attacked… There are thousands of reasons why we should act in a way, which is not really ours.
I guess, at the end of the day, it’s a question of how often we are really trapped. If there is a cumulation of those situations we should be aware that we start to live a (business) life of someone else.
But be careful. Too often we are deceiving ourselves. We just think that someone else expects us to do something, but in fact, this might be just your illusion.
However, as long as we feel deeply inspired and empowerd doing our everyday work we are aligned with our own mission, dreams and aspirations.
Inspiration is a true and powerful indicator to know that we are pursuing our dreams and aspirations and not the ones of someone else.
Or turn it the other way around: As long as the team you lead feels inspired and empowered you do a good leadership job. Because it’s a clear sign that you managed to align your colleagues personal aspirations and vision with the overall mission of their (team) work.
Therefore, the most important responsibility of inspired leadership is to make sure your team and colleagues stay inspired to live their vision…
This is simply reducing the risk of life regret No 1. More life regrets will follow in the next posts…
Have you ever heard about Bronnie Ware? She is an Australian nurse and counselor – worked in palliative care; taking care of terminally ill people, most of whom had less than 12 weeks to live.
Bronnie did a comprehensive study on the life regrets of her dying patients, looking back on the passed decades of their rich lifes. She was convinced that the regrets of the dying can be invaluable advice for the living. She didn’t know that her study would become a world best selling book.
Why do so many people tend to forget that work is not just about getting the best performance out of our working hours. Merely it is about spending quite a big share of our most valueable lifetime (for the activity we call work). And I would say, it is worth to use this time wisely. So, what can Bronnie’s findings teach us for our own work, leadership and life qualities…?
No 1 life regret:
I wish I pursued my dreams and aspirations, and not the life others expected of me.
According to Bronnie, this was by far the most common regret of all. Too often, we tend to live the life others expect of us – and not the life we want to live ourself.
I am sure, there is an infinite number of situations when family members or friends push us to live their life, but I am convinced this happens at least as much in our jobs and working life.
Too many times we are pushed or obliged to complete tasks we are not convinced of, but we think that we simply have to: Yes, it’s because it is our job. Yes, it’s because my boss expects me to do this. Yes, it’s because it saves our team of being attacked… There are thousands of reasons why we should act in a way, which is not really ours.
I guess, at the end of the day, it’s a question of how often we are really trapped. If there is a cumulation of those situations we should be aware that we start to live a (business) life of someone else.
But be careful. Too often we are deceiving ourselves. We just think that someone else expects us to do something, but in fact, this might be just your illusion.
However, as long as we feel deeply inspired and empowerd doing our everyday work we are aligned with our own mission, dreams and aspirations.
Or turn it the other way around: As long as the team you lead feels inspired and empowered you do a good leadership job. Because it’s a clear sign that you managed to align your colleagues personal aspirations and vision with the overall mission of their (team) work.
This is simply reducing the risk of life regret No 1.
More life regrets will follow in the next posts…
Photo by Mwangi Gatheca on Unsplash.