It’s not just your well-being that benefits from connecting to purpose; your career benefits from connecting to purpose. Your future self also will thank you, because studies have shown that at the end of their lives, people regret what they didn’t do, not what they did do.
When people who were close to death were asked, according to the study published in the psychology journal Emotion, “What’s your No. 1 regret in your entire life,” 76% said, “Not living my life for me. Living for what I thought others wanted for me or what was expected of me.”
We can avoid this regret by being accountable for our dreams and goals, and putting deadlines on making them happen instead of waiting for inspiration to hit or our fears to go away, because that rarely happens. These five steps provide a framework for making dreams reality:
- First step. Slow down and write your list about what’s important to you, so you can live intentionally.
- Second step. Share your dreams and goals — both professional and personal — because you never know who can help.
- Third step. Be unstoppable. Do not underestimate the power of persistence. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you’re actually doing it.
- Fourth step. Be brave. Move through the fear. If you’re waiting for fear to subside, you’ll be waiting for a long time. We all feel these fears. These fears don’t go away. But that discomfort that you feel, that’s growth. And if you fail, that failure is your fuel for success. You didn’t get to where you are right now by coasting. You had to push the gas.
- Fifth step. Give without expectation. When you help someone else, it resonates a little bit more. There’s a great quote, “Happiness is only real when it’s shared.”
Ben Nemtin is an author and motivational speaker. This was excerpted from his 2025 Top of the Table Annual Meeting presentation, “5 steps to avoid regret and achieve what seems impossible.” (MDRT member-exclusive content)
For more inspiring MDRT member-exclusive content to inspire you to find your purpose
- Read “Finding the ‘why’ behind the work you do as an advisor”
- Watch “You matter”
