The Top of my To-Do List

Hey friends,

I am aware that you may not have got last weeks issue because of an error on my part so I will link it here.

This week I stumbled across a fantastic, very short blog post from Paul Graham called The Top of My Todo List.

It references the famous book The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying. In no particular order, they’re:

  1. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
  2. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
  3. I wish I had let myself be happier.
  4. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
  5. I wish I’d kept in touch with my friends.

Here’s what our friend Paul has to say about these:

I would like to avoid making these mistakes. But how do you avoid mistakes you make by default? Ideally you transform your life so it has other defaults. But it may not be possible to do that completely. As long as these mistakes happen by default, you probably have to be reminded not to make them. So I inverted the 5 regrets, yielding a list of 5 commands which I then put at the top of the file I use as a todo list.
Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.

So when I do my Morning Pages I now put it at the top of my Daily writing template.

Have a great week!

Conor

My Favourite Things This Week

Holiday - If you didn't know I was on holiday this week in Killarney and we had a great time. We did things like visiting Ladies View, playing tennis, going swimming, going to the movies and riding the jaunting car. All of this was really fun of course not everything was perfect but overall I enjoyed the holiday.

Quote of The Week

The important thing is not what one is born with, but what use one makes of that equipment.

From The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Resurfaced using Readwise