5 Painful Things People Regret At 100 Years Old That You Could Avoid.

When you only live 20 years the priority is to survive, when you live 50 the priority is to live a good life, but when you live 100?

Few of us have lived it. On average nowadays we live 80 years. Soon we’ll reach the 100 years. What is the priority when you live so long?

We don't know yet, but we do know what those who have reached 100 years old regret, and they leave us some clues about it.

1. Sell your life.

Don't do anything you don't love, and don't be afraid of what anyone will say.

“You will starve”, they will say for sure. Not true!

Don't go to the extreme of living carpe diem and doing only what you want (that's living like animals), your actions bring consequences. Do what you must do according to your inner direction, the one guiding your heart. Don’t do what others want or expect of you. It's a trap that has made countless people miserable and you can avoid it.

What is it that thing motivates you?

What makes your heart big?

Why are you stuck doing something you don't like?

2. Working so hard at the expense of health and family.

For me, this is the one that shakes me the most.

Because reaching 100 years old and realizing that your siblings have died, that time and Alzheimer's have taken away your friends, that your children live in another country, continent, or planet and the only way to feel close to them is on a screen -if they have time to pick up the phone-. And finally finding out that you worked hard to make someone else rich, and therefore you didn't spend more time with your loved ones is a weight on your soul that only grows year after year.

Working won’t make you rich. By earning a salary you cover expenses and save a little. Until inflation rises and the value of your savings drops. And again you have to go to work.

It's a trap. Why do you get caught in it?

If working is the only way to make money for you, consider another way to play the game that doesn't take from you the one thing you can't get back, and the one you keep when Alzheimer's comes for you.

3. Not having expressed more positive emotions.

The human being -you and I- are not programmed in positive.

We have been created in negative mode and when something bad happens to you, what do you notice? If you get a pimple on your nose, what do you notice, the pimple or everything else that is going well? Besides, we’re the worst critics of ourselves. When someone is struggling in life you cheer them up, but when you’re the one facing adversity you tear yourself down by self-criticizing and punishing yourself.

The problem is that negative emotions spread 4 times easier than positive ones. So it's easy to spend years living in the negative. When in fact you could hug more, kiss more, and love more.

Not seeing the importance of this is a clear sign that you need it badly.

4. Living far away from your loved ones.

Until the 1.800's we didn't travel, today success is in traveling, studying here, opening a business there, and living in another city because you pay less taxes.

But the support structure on which we build our lives -the family- is gone. It's not the same seeing each other on the phone screen as hugging your Dad, eating the best meatloaf in the world with Mom, arguing with your siblings, and visiting your aunts and uncles. Especially if your family is of Hispanic or Latino origin.

Living in several countries and speaking more than one language makes you grow as a person. But having your family far away for a long time destroys you inside.

Especially when you try to get in touch but discover that life has taken them all in paths quite distant from yours.

Even if they still live in the same place, they are far away from you.

5. Not having been happier.

Everyone over 100 years old at this point referred to one thing: How much have you loved?

Happiness is having a meaning in life and loving it. This is no longer easy to achieve as it was 30 years ago when you were clear about what you wanted in life and how to get it. Today, we have a thousand different and contradictory voices telling us where to go in life and how to do it. Amidst all that noise, we inevitably get lost.

The subject is delicate because the more you pursue happiness, the less you feel it. Happiness is the result of a series of things that Tal Ben-Sahar explains very well here.

“Happiness is going to sleep without fear and waking up without anguish,” says Alberto Espinosa. And since you are programmed in negative, achieving it is everyone's job.

Whether you live 100 years or 40, in your last days on earth you won't want to regret any of these 5 things.

Because your story doesn't end the day you don't wake up anymore.

Indeed, it becomes more intense, and regrets are felt far deeper because you don't have a physical body to help you process them by crying, sleeping, and eating chocolate.

A hug, Liam

the Rebelliam