How to perform a Regret Audit: A simple question that can help you live with purpose and have fewer regrets

07/22/25 at 03:00 AM

How to perform a Regret Audit: A simple question that can help you live with purpose and have fewer regrets
Psychology Today; by Jordan Grumet, MD; 7/20/25
As a hospice doctor, I’ve spent countless hours sitting at the bedsides of dying patients, listening to the echoes of lives well-lived and those haunted by regret. As Bronnie Ware described in The Five Regrets of the Dying, many end-of-life reflections center around missed chances to live more authentically, joyfully, and meaningfully. But we don’t have to wait until our final moments to face these truths. I’ve long advocated for the hospice life review as a proactive tool. It’s a structured set of questions used by hospice professionals to help patients process their lives and find peace. The questions are simple but profound:

What were your biggest successes and failures?
What were the most important moments of your life?
Who were the people who shaped you?
And perhaps most important: What do you regret?

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