how to live life with "no regrets"
Buenos días OGs,
If you enjoy these weekly letters more than Chick-fil-A, Game of Thrones, or Sunday NFL football, please feel free to share with one friend you love. Let’s get after it.
This week I saw a movie called *Don’t Look Up* with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Jennifer Lawrence, and despite mixed reviews from my friends, I genuinely thought it was solid and funny.
In the movie, not to give any spoiler alerts, but the Hunger Games girl is a PhD student who discovers a big-ass meteor. Leonardo DiCaprio realizes it's headed directly towards Earth, and it will cause an apocalyptic event that will kill everyone in six months.
As I was typing this weekly letter on my balcony, I got sidetracked and started thinking about life and living in a way with minimal regret when it’s all said and done.
Time is a weird concept. I don’t know if you feel like this, but for me, it seems like the older I get, the faster the years go. I guess it makes sense logically. When you’re five years old, one year is like 20% of your entire existence.
One of my friends has a poster in his office that is a constant reminder of how precious our time really is. I’ll show you a picture below, but think of it as a scantron-looking graph where you shade in a bubble for every week. On the vertical axis, it shows age 1-75. The idea is to mark off each week you live to show how much you have left.
For some, this might seem creepy, but it’s honestly super powerful. If we keep our mortality front and center, it’s almost hard to do sh*t that is unimportant (scroll on Instagram, binge-watch shows).
This quote I heard from Naval ties into this principle: “Every man has two lives, and the second starts when he realizes he has just one.”
https://youtube.com/shorts/AIlynekpdZo?si=tbTK4mUC6csrR2ZQ
People often express common regrets on their deathbeds, which tend to reflect missed opportunities and choices about how they lived their lives. Some of the most frequent regrets include:
1. **Not living true to oneself** – Many regret living according to others’ expectations rather than pursuing their own dreams and desires.
2. **Working too much** – People often wish they had spent less time working and more time with family, friends, or doing things they enjoyed.
3. **Not expressing their feelings** – Regret often comes from holding back emotions, whether that means not telling someone they loved them or not resolving conflicts.
4. **Losing touch with friends** – People frequently wish they had maintained closer relationships and nurtured meaningful friendships.
5. **Not allowing themselves to be happy** – Many realize too late that happiness is a choice, and they regret not letting themselves enjoy life more, due to stress, worries, or what others might think.
These reflections are often centered on relationships, personal fulfillment, and emotional authenticity.
Zoom out today and figure out what will maximize your life.
Let’s get after it, squad 🧠🦍💰