We're a product of our decisions, but our decisions are really a product, in turn, of our attitudes. Our attitude and how we think is so important, guys. And having a positive attitude is even more important. You know, "I'm not a product of my circumstances. I'm a product of my decisions." Then I'd have to say those decisions come from a whole host of things—having a positive mental attitude, getting around the right people, having the right input in your mind—so that you make those right decisions. But guys, it all starts again with a dream, and it starts with a positive attitude. How we believe in ourselves is so, so important.
Guys, this was interesting. A nurse had spent her career as a palliative care nurse, worked exclusively with people who were from 3 to 12 months from death, and she made a habit of asking them about their greatest regrets. And she heard the same five regrets time and time again. And by studying these regrets—and by me sharing them—you know, I hope you can make certain good choices that you don't fall victim to them yourself.
And I just want to say, from a personal standpoint, having dealt with—and still dealing with—stage 4 prostate cancer that I was diagnosed with in January 2018, life can get short really quick. And it can get real real quick too, guys. So you got to realize what's important in your life. You—you and me—don't know how many more days we've got left, months or years. We just don't. So my message is simply this: Don't live a life of regrets. Okay?
Here are some of the situations to talk about these verses:
- They wish they had made decisions based on what other people think. Now, how often do we do that? We want to please other people. I can't—I don't want to get into the details of how I lived most of my life in my early 20s, but it wouldn't have been something my mom and dad would be proud of. And my current wife would probably not have—she tells me she wouldn't have dated me, knowing what I did. You know, I was more of a product of the people I hung around. But I made decisions based on, you know, acceptance—trying to please other people or live to what they wanted to do.
But you know, you can make poor career choices. Right? There are too many people—and I've been there myself—who study for a degree they weren't that into or even spend their lives pursuing a career they weren't passionate about. And that's really where I found myself, you know, a year and a half ago—just not really liking where I was at. Ultimately, I said, "Could I do more? Can I be more?" And the answers turned out to be yes, yes.
Whether you're seeking, you know, parental approval (if you still got parents around) or pursuing pay and prestige over passion, making poor career choices is a decision that will live with you forever. And I'm gonna say again: Life's too short to do that, guys.
And then you've got, you know, failed to uphold your morals. And that's kind of where I was at in my late teens, early 20s—kind of more of a result of losing my mom at 18. I think I coped with that by masking it with drugs and alcohol. Man, I'm not gonna get into that a lot, but your morals start to deteriorate, you know, when you get caught up in—maybe what your boss thinks of you, or how much money you think your spouse needs for you to be happy, or how bad you'll look if you fail.
