You have five minutes left to live

Martin O’Toole, walking the Inca Trails near Cusco, Peru

If you found out you had five minutes left to live, what would be on your list of death bed regrets? 

Have you even thought about it? I won't blame you if you haven't. After all, thinking and talking about death is morbid, right? I suppose it's also a little bit scary. Perhaps, before reading on, take five minutes and write yours down now?

When I found out that many studies resulted in ten common death bed regrets, I realised that since I'm dying and fully prepared for it, perhaps I might bring a platform that could help people consider death differently.

A collation of interviews of people in palliative care highlighted the same common themes of regret as follows:

1. I wish I took better care of my body.

2. I wish I'd dared to live more truthfully.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I should've said "I love you" more.

5. I wish I'd let go of grudges.

6. I wish I'd left work at work and made more time for family.

7. I wish I stayed in touch with friends.

8. I wish I'd been the better person in conflicts.

9. I wish I'd realised that happiness was a choice much sooner.

10. I wish I'd pursued my dreams.

Do you see any themes similar to your list?

This podcast aims to combine self-help, spirituality, philosophy, psychology, well-being, real-life tales of woe, and some good old-fashioned common sense. Its purpose is to examine our emotional response to death, happiness, and everything in between. Most importantly, How To Die Happy offers practical utilities to help listeners find happiness — before it's too late, and they're dead as doornails.

I suppose it's funny to be talking about the subjects of death and happiness — one being something that most of us actively pursues — the other a thing that many of us are immensely keen to avoid. A cosmic joke, perhaps?

I hope this podcast will shed light on what happiness really is — how one might healthily pursue it — while pointing an even brighter beam at the taboo of all taboos (in the west, at least), namely the end of all ends, death. And whether you believe death to be the end is broadly irrelevant as long as we can all ultimately agree that life is worth living and loving. 

So given the inevitable fact that all of our lives will, at some point, end, perhaps you might wish to engineer a life that will not result in regret when your time's up. Some people believe you cannot plan for your death. I'm here to tell you that the designs for a good death lie in the way that you live your life.

"Life is a landscape. Why don't you paint it your way?"

— Duane Forrest

I sincerely hope that some of the ideas shared on this podcast allow you to reframe, reset, and rewrite your story and your path toward dying happy. Oh, and don't get any funny ideas about it being "too late." As you'll learn, if you choose to follow this podcast, my journey of reinvention began at aged 43 (I'm almost 46), and since I will never stop learning, this trip will never end. So you see, you really don't have any excuses. 

Fancy coming on this journey with us? If so, buckle up, and let's get on with the business of dying happy.