Coaching practices for Bronnie Ware Five Regrets
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Bronnie Ware Five Regrets, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep telling myself I’ll let myself be happy once things settle down
- I keep telling myself family comes first, but when I actually look at where my hours went this week it’s almost all work
- I look at the big shape of my life
- A few big regrets keep circling back because they never got an ending
- There’s so much I swallow to keep the peace
Practices that may help
- The Regret of the Dying
Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, documented the most common regrets of dying patients in her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The themes — especially living others’ expectations, working too hard, suppressing feelings, and neglecting friendships — are consistent with broader research on regret and well-being. The evidence is qualitative and self-reported; treat it as wisdom data, not clinical data. - Identify one permission you need to give yourself
Name the specific permission you are withholding from yourself that stands between you and more happiness.
The Regret of the Dying - Audit work hours against your stated priorities
Compare how you actually spend your time this week against what you say matters most.
The Regret of the Dying - Audit whether you are living your life or someone else’s
Identify the places where your choices reflect others’ expectations rather than your own values.
The Regret of the Dying - Revisit and reconcile your significant regrets
Name your regrets explicitly and work through them toward acceptance — not suppression or rumination.
Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy - Practice expressing feelings you habitually suppress
Name one feeling you regularly suppress and find one safe context to express it this week.
The Regret of the Dying - Write the passages about what you are genuinely proud of
Acknowledge, without false modesty, the things you have done that were worth doing.
The Legacy Letter: Writing What You Want to Leave Behind - Use mortality salience to clarify what actually matters
Regularly reflect on finitude — not to produce dread, but to sharpen the signal-to-noise ratio of your choices.
The Regret of the Dying - Weigh action regret against inaction regret
Over a lifetime, the regrets that linger are usually the things you didn’t do.
The Regret-Minimization Framework - Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy
The Buffett two-list strategy asks you to write down 25 career or life goals, circle the top 5, then treat everything else on the list as active avoidances — not "do later" items. The story is apocryphal and its precise origin is unverified, but the underlying principle — that near-priority goals steal attention from top priorities — is consistent with how cognitive resources and opportunity costs work.
Related concerns
- Bronnie Ware Happiness Regret
Name the specific permission you are withholding from yourself that stands between you and more happiness.
Identify one permission you need to give yourself
- How To Live Without Regret
Identify the places where your choices reflect others’ expectations rather than your own values.
Audit whether you are living your life or someone else’s
- Regrets Of The Dying
Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, documented the most common regrets of dying patients in her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The themes — especially living others’ expectations, working too hard, suppressing feelings, and neglecting friendships — are consistent with broader research on regret and well-being. The evidence is qualitative and self-reported; treat it as wisdom data, not clinical data.
- The Regret Of The Dying After A Setback
Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, documented the most common regrets of dying patients in her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The themes — especially living others’ expectations, working too hard, suppressing feelings, and neglecting friendships — are consistent with broader research on regret and well-being. The evidence is qualitative and self-reported; treat it as wisdom data, not clinical data.
- The Regret Of The Dying During Conflict
Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse, documented the most common regrets of dying patients in her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The themes — especially living others’ expectations, working too hard, suppressing feelings, and neglecting friendships — are consistent with broader research on regret and well-being. The evidence is qualitative and self-reported; treat it as wisdom data, not clinical data.
- Feeling Expression Ware Regret
Name one feeling you regularly suppress and find one safe context to express it this week.
Practice expressing feelings you habitually suppress
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