Over my years as a business coach & mentor, one of the most common complaints from business owners is that they are spending too much time working in their business.  There never feels like there is enough hours in the day to deal with what needs to be done in the business.  As a result, they are spending less and less time doing the things in life they are passionate about.

In these circumstances, our coaching conversations are about how to structure the business in a way that releases them to spend on those things they are passionate about in life.

It is in this context that in the past week a client sent me an article titled “Surprisingly common deathbed regret that could change how you live” with the comment I don’t want this to me!

In that article Camilla Rowland, CEO of Palliative Care Australia, who with a 30-year career in Palliative Care, says:

“Without a doubt, the regret I’ve heard time and time again is that people wish they’d spent less time working, and more time with the people they love.

 The other thing people might find surprising is that money doesn’t seem to have any effect on the way you look back at your life at the end.

 I once looked after an incredibly wealthy man at the end of his life and he had been one of those really busy guys – working 18 hours a day, achieving great success.

 I remember him saying to me, ‘you know what, I would give up all my boats, my houses, everything that I have just to have spent more time with my kids when they were young’. I heard that time and time again from people.

 No matter which walk of life they were from, it was the quality of their relationships that mattered above all else.”