Thought everyone might be interested in this. An atheist colleague of mine sent it to me. He Summers in New Zealand and received this from a friend there. It has to do with a hospice study in Australia.
The top five regrets of the dying were found to be:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Not even mentioned were:
1. money
2. power
3. fame
4. political ideas
5. religious differences
“Enough money” is when we don’t have to worry much about money. If I didn’t work hard, expressed my true feelings and lived life true to myself, I am sure I would find myself in a financial situation a lot less desirable than where I am now.
Only yesterday, when my client wanted me to transform a cover tagline I am presently working on into a 3-D text I thought for a while about telling him what I really thought about that idea, but I quickly calculated that expressing my true feelings and being true to myself wasn’t really worth it. The cover now looks like a comics book, but OTOH, I’ll be able to spend a week at the beach in the summer instead of getting fired and staying true to myself.
But then, there is this quote my Mark Twain:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Only yesterday, when my client wanted me to transform a cover tagline I am presently working on into a 3-D text I thought for a while about telling him what I really thought about that idea, but I quickly calculated that expressing my true feelings and being true to myself wasn’t really worth it. The cover now looks like a comics book, but OTOH, I’ll be able to spend a week at the beach in the summer instead of getting fired and staying true to myself.
George, I too have to make those compromises almost daily. Like you, I suck it up and do what the client (in my case, my boss) wants. I find other outlets over which I have more control to nurture my creative side, and chalk the rest up to earning a living.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
This makes my point George; if you are true to yourself then you release yourself from all convention and find satisfaction in what you do. I know some of the time we have to “pray” to the godess Moneta, but throwing caution to the wind so to speak and following your own dream or path will allow you to be fulfilled. BTW, I worked 2 jobs when the kids were young and my wife was in school just to pay bills. It was necessary to (nautical illusion) Stay afloat. When she was finally employed I dropped one job and kept a part time job. I happen to enjoy both jobs but at my time of life I’m also enjoying just being myself and being more direct. Ex. what got you into graphic design? Are you an artist? Did you gravitate to it because it’s a natural talent or because it will get you the big bucks? Or a little of both perhaps. Also, liked the nautical reference by Twain. I like to sail and can tie a bowline. And have sailed on the trades. Doing what I can while I have the time!
I have always enjoyed designing, but I have never thought I was going to end up as a graphic designer. Much less working on corporate design. I studied toy design, scenography and industrial design, as my passion has always been the puppet theatre, but I quickly realized that if I wanted to have a family I had to give up theatre. Maybe I’ll be thinking of Twain’s quote on my deathbed…
I sincerely hope not. I do envy people with a natural talent though. I’m sure that you know genetics comes in to play here, but a skill must be developed and to do that one must be motivated. By puppet theater do you mean marionettes? Hand? This is a subject that I know very little about but I do love 3d art. It would be great to make a living from a hobby that one is passionate about. FI I build model ships. The master modelers make as much as $10,000 per model but the length of time to complete the model could take months and the market is limited. Still, it and playing music keeps me sane. But time is fleeting.
I love marionettes, but there are many more types of puppets than just traditional marionettes or glove puppets.
What instrument do you play, Jack? Sorry if you already told us before; I might have forgotten. I play the flute and can play some piano and guitar. I also used to sing in choirs.
Unfortunately I sing like a frog! I play several string instruments. I started on the guitar, then switched to the fiddle. I play Appalachian style fiddle and learned several tunes from J.P. Fraley ( he’s on youtube). I also play the lap dulcimer, autoharp, and recently switched to irish harp. I’m learning O’Carolan tunes and have two lever harps. I’ve always liked Irish music ballads and dance tunes but popular tunes as well. Pachelbel’s Canon in D is one of my favorites. I can play it on the fiddle but it sounds so much better on the harp.
Thought everyone might be interested in this. An atheist colleague of mine sent it to me. He Summers in New Zealand and received this from a friend there. It has to do with a hospice study in Australia.
The top five regrets of the dying were found to be:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Not even mentioned were:
1. money
2. power
3. fame
4. political ideas
5. religious differences
Ironic, #3 is my greatest regret
Cap’t Jack
Excellent, I’m saving them. I attended another (Xtian) funeral this week and have been tring to find equivilent items; things we can use when when one of us non-believers have our final ending.
[ Edited: 15 February 2012 04:10 PM by garythehuman ]
Bah, I have no regrets. Yes, I’ve screwed up quite a number of times, but on the whoie I’ve done pretty well by others, and I’ve enjoyed myself. While I’ve always enjoyed my work, probably the best move I made later in my worklife was getting out of laboratory management and into sales. Since I did extremely well for the company both monetarily and profit-wise, I could be a very vocal and honest wise-ass and not worry about being fired.
Thought everyone might be interested in this. An atheist colleague of mine sent it to me. He Summers in New Zealand and received this from a friend there. It has to do with a hospice study in Australia.
The top five regrets of the dying were found to be:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Not even mentioned were:
1. money
2. power
3. fame
4. political ideas
5. religious differences
Ironic, #3 is my greatest regret
Cap’t Jack
It sounds like an honest list, but those people must have led somewhat miserable lives IMO. There is always something to regret, i.e. something you would do differently - it seems to be the nature of us third chimps; me especially, for I am never satisfied with anything . What matters is how much your regrets interfere with going forward.
. What matters is how much your regrets interfere with going forward.
