When Chris Gardner and his young son were sleeping rough on the floor of a public toilet, he could never have dreamt that his life story would be turned into a hit Hollywood movie.
It was back in the early 1980s that Mr Gardner, then aged 27, and his toddler son were homeless for a year in San Francisco. Enrolled on a low-paid trainee scheme at a stock brokerage, he didn't have enough money to raise the deposit to rent an apartment. So Mr Gardner, who was estranged from his partner, and Chris Jr would instead sleep wherever they could.
If you are familiar with the story, Chris Gardner work his butt off to become one of the most successful stock brokers in San Francisco and became a multi millionaire.
Life can sometimes be very difficult and somewhat confusing but if you have not found your true purpose in life, keep looking don't settle. Chris Gardener said in an interview:
"When I first enter the room where all the stock brokers were, I knew I found my purpose, that deep down inside I knew this was the place I should be."
If you give up, you will be holding yourself back from something great. You may not know what it is exactly, but deep down inside you can feel something is missing and if you don't search for it, you may live to regret it.
I read a book by Jake Ducey; The Purpose Principle, How To Draw More Meaning Into Your Life. In the book, Jake made reference to a palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days and revealed the most common regrets they had at the end of their lives. Bronnie Ware, the Australian nurse, spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives.
She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying which are illustrated below,
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
"This came from every male patient that Bronnie Ware nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
"Many people suppressed their feelings to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."
Sometimes we take life so much for granted and think we have some special gift that will give us life forever, when the reality is we have limited time on this planet. Steve job said in his Stanford commencement speech.
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
You must enjoy your life and make the best of the time you still have. It is never too late, life is s gift and it is not something to waste. What's your greatest regret so far, and what will you set out to achieve or change before you die?
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