I often hear people say that they live life with no regrets. Good for them. I have lots of regrets well maybe not regrets but things I wish I’d done differently. Not big things, but little changes I would have made early on in my adult life that probably would have made things a LOT easier right about now. But that’s a different article for a different day. But there is one thing that I know — I am in a position to implement a change in my life. And that’s what I’m doing. So, if I have any regrets after this social experiment that I’m calling a life is over, then I only have myself to blame. True, I don’t have a time machine and there are some things that I can’t specifically change, but those are things I don’t regret. We all make mistakes, and those mistakes are just part of the learning curve of life.
I read this article a while ago, Those Top 37 Things You’ll Regret When You’re Old. The first item on the list is Not Traveling When You Had the Chance. Now you should all know by now I’m obsessed with travel. So, it isn’t really a regret of mine I do wish I’d done more international travel when I was younger and had less debt, but I’m making up for that. But as I read through the list, I realized that most of the items on the list are in line with what my life philosophy is all about — looking at those choices that you’ve made in your life that you aren’t happy with and changing them. And most importantly, making yourself a priority. It is never too late to make even the smallest change in your life to bring you happiness and contentment. Life is too short to be unhappy. There are so many things in this world that we cannot change, why live with bad decisions that you can change? The first step is to look at that thing in your life that you want to change and ask yourself “what is the worst thing that will happen if I make this change?” Then ask yourself “how will my life be better or enriched if I make this change?” Once you do that you will often find that the worst thing may be bad or scary, but the good thing will be so much better!
There are many things that I have done in my life that I cannot change. So we move on from those. But these are my Top 10 Regrets (That I CAN and WILL change!)
- Being scared to do things
- Failing to make physical fitness a priority
- Supporting others’ dreams over your own
- Not volunteering enough
- Failing to finish what you start
- Not taking the time to develop contacts and network
- Not being grateful sooner
- Not stopping enough to appreciate the moment
- Not learning another language
- Caring too much what other people think
I believe the only regrets that we will truly have are those decisions that we feel were taken out of our hands. Those decisions that you made based on someone else’s idea of what was best for you. If you leave this earth knowing that the life that you lived was 100% designed by you, how can you have regrets?