Top 5 Regrets of the Dying + 12 Minutes Toward Creative (R)Evolution
Leaning into a life of intuitive spontaneous action
Top 5 regrets of the dying:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
On Regret
I am not dying but as I feel the momentum of ‘30’ pulling me in and my 20-some-years pushing me out, I have been feeling a pang of regret.
I witness how much second guessing I did from 18 until now…
…only to be coming back to my own intuition,
…only to have watched visions I was confused about fulfilled,
…only to witness years and moments un-lived in my full expression birth regret for no one but me,
…only to see how mornings, evenings, nights and days spent entertaining others thoughts of me, were mostly trapped fears around speaking or doing what I really wanted,
and I allow myself to have regret.
I’m someone who travelled to 20+ countries, lived in 5 cities, made many connections and choose to lay a foundation for an unconventional life and career.
And still…
I regret doubting myself.
I regret questioning myself.
I regret quieting my fire.
I regret being so hard on myself, when we’re all coming through personal, social and ancestral world-shaping shifts.
I regret overly-entertaining the opinions of people who are not going to be here to see my life through.
This is not a regret I will dwell in.
There is a “both and” here: Everything led to the embodied knowing I have now— and also–I get to see what could have been, from this present knowing.
What I Know Now
- The world is changing radically, in every dimension.
- We’ve been poorly prepared for it.
- We get to participate in its (and our) complete and total unfolding.
- There is no one-size-fits-all for this.
- It gets to be fun.
12 Years to 12 Minutes
6 months shy of 18 to 6 months shy of 30... While I just shared about my regrets, what am I most proud of in these 12 years?
Letting myself pause, reconsider, and allow new choices to arrive — over and over.
There is plenty more I can and will say on that, but for now, the phrase that emerged in October as I began to deliberately center how I want to live from what I know now: ‘intuitive spontaneous action.’
It took 12 years to get to a place I feel I can live a life from that sentiment. I am still building the foundation financially to allow a greater flexibility within that, but mentally and emotionally, every conscious thought and lighting up of my unconscious has brought me back to that phrase.
And so, as I open to my next 12 years, I choose to share with you that sentiment. The world is fast-changing and it will be hard to predict the next 12 years, but you can choose how you want to orient, starting with how you treat your next free 12 minutes.
The Greatest Adventure
I consider our personal yet connected paths to liberation, life’s greatest adventure.
What stops us?
Confusion over present desires in conflict with long term needs (and the gap in-between) can stop us from taking action.
Fear can encourage us to give up on ourselves and the people around us.
Recurring conflict — inner and outer — can blind us to the joy of something greater: more loving, just, joyful and abundant.
These three dilemmas are personal and collective.
So where do we begin?
My encouragement as a start is not to follow anyone else’s story for you, but rather to allow yourself in your next free 12 minutes — to pause, dance, breath, account for the present moment need, take action where you’re avoiding it, say yes to the thing you’ve been putting off, or just let your intuition lead.
Pauses allow ‘something new’ back in.
And this something new (or remembered) can encourage us to hold “both-ands,” in the way the logical mind is quick to erase.
From a place of ‘both-and,’ we can be and birth things that truly do not replicate the past.
And when we personally gives ourselves a taste of that, so we can learn to do it together too.
On Creative (R)Evoltion
Creative evolution and revolution is about choice, and surrender.
It’s about action and allowing.
It’s about devotion and disruption.
It is a state of mind, a way of being, and a personally/co-created path forward in support of conscious mental, emotional and spiritual evolution.
Personally, its an invitation to throw out the rulebook, while supporting you to harmonize the pressures and needs of a moment with the innate knowing of a call deep within.
It is a reminder that what you’re moving toward gets to feel good.
And an invitation to surrender needing to feel good, to actually take action toward it.
Its a path of self discovery that involves outer shifts on every level of your life.
Let It Breathe
As I was writing this, my Dad walked into the room and quoted myself back to myself: ‘feel free to enjoy the next 12 minutes.’ …and here is life laughing back at us. Where you get lost on the path, give yourself a moment to breathe and see what gets sent back your way.
He was re-quoting me saying:“If you can envision 12 years, you can live 12 months… and if you can do 12 months you can do 12 weeks, and 12 days… and 12 minutes.”
So that’s my invitation to you today — Give yourself 12 minutes to take a spontaneous action… even if it’s to sit there and feel confused (confusion is powerful too), to feel regret, sadness, or longing, to let yourself dance… to let yourself remember. What else is here?
Support In Your Creative (R)Evolution
If you would like support to tap into your own great adventure…
If you would like to reclaim the story of your life from your innate wisdom and have accountability to act on it:
Consider GIFTING yourself a different kind of (belated) Valentine’s Gift.
I’ve created 2 tools for “Making Magic Happen:” a 12 week habit tracker and a 12 month vision setter, to get you reconnected to breadth and depth — long term vision and daily action. For half-off use code: VDAYGIFT until February 21st.
You can also find support for creative revolution on my substack.
For 1–1 support, I currently offer creative (r)evolution sessions (2 hours) or seasons (13 weeks) where we look at a holistic path for tapping into the both-ands you are ready to live into.
You don’t have to do this alone.
With love,
Libby
