Work/Blog/Life

Geeking out loud writes:

I’ll confess that I’m concerned I’m already way too dependent on technology and that perhaps I’m on a path that could ultimately make much of my life merely ‘virtual’. I can’t see myself saying when I’m about to die “boy, I sure wish I spent more time in front of those screens!”

Thinking about what you may regret when you’re about to die certainly puts things into perspective. I can see this as a key indicator of what is truly important to you (granted that what is important to you may not be important to me).

Could you write your Regrets List?
Could you look back at your life and write a list today of what you would regret if you were on your death bed? While it may sound morbid, none of us really know when we’re going to pass on - and given that it could happen at any time, if you are ever going to construct such a list, today is as good a day as any other.

What would you do with your list?
Interesting question.

The disclaimer: I could not pretend to be a qualified counsellor so I won’t try - if bringing up regrets is likely to reinforce negative self-perceptions to the stage where you may harm yourself, please seek the assistance of a qualified counsellor or other health professional. Self-awareness is important but it is more important to have the strength to get through the day - everything else depends on this. Do not harm yourself.

I treated it as a risk analysis exercise - this is what I did:

1. I Identified as many regrets as possible - I wrote a big long list. I wrote down everything that I could think of, then revisited it every so often.
2. I then divided the regrets into the things that could be changed and the things that could not.
3. I then categorised them by probability and impact. Probability is the likelihood of a thing occuring - in this case, regrets are mostly things that have happened (or not) in the past, but there is a chance of that same regret reoccuring, especially where a habit (like gossip) is concerned - so probability cannot be discounted. Impact is the effect that they had on those around me and myself.
4. I then worked on my risk mitigation strategy: for those regrets with a high impact and a medium to high probability, I turned them into a todo list. Some of these will be addressed by specific goal-setting/action plans, and I’d like to think that, in time, all of them can be resolved.

This does not only apply to work/life balance, but to every part of life. Working through this sort of thing helps to give life meaning. What do you think?