Why You Should Never Regret Anything

Regret is something that so many people struggle with. No one likes to think about the things they did and wished they could go back in time to change.

We all do it, and we always will. But the truth is, regretting past mistakes is perhaps the biggest waste of your time, and will only make you miserable.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss why regretting anything you’ve done is a fool’s errand.

You can’t change the past

It’s a sad but true fact that you can’t change the course history. No matter how badly you screwed up, or who you hurt, you can’t go back in time to fix it.

Regretting does nothing to remedy the past, so why waste time and energy obsessing over it?

Everything happens for a reason

You might not know it now, or maybe you’ll never realize, but everything happens the way it’s supposed to happen, and everything leads to something else.

So that thing you did that you wish you could change, that will have set other things in motion, things that could prove valuable and important in your future.

Breaking up with your partner, for example, might be something you regret now, but that very act could have made you available to meet the love of your life.

Everything we do makes us who we are

You should never regret anything because your past actions, and the things you experienced as a result of them, have made you who you are today.

Our mistakes shape us, oftentimes more than the good things we do. You’ll never know to what extent that thing you regret doing played a part in shaping you into the person you now, and what great things that person will go on to achieve.

You’ll drive yourself crazy and miserable

The next time you find yourself regretting something, pause for a moment and think about the long-term effects of this. You know you can’t change the past, and obsessing over what might have been had you made an alternate choice is sure to drive you crazy.

Not being in control will make you miserable; and it’s a misery that won’t ever go away as long as you regret things that are impossible to change.

Focusing on regret takes time away from focusing on changing

The longer you stay living in the past, trying to replay your past misdeeds over and over, hoping for a different outcome that you know will never happen, the less time you spend working on learning and growing.

You’re supposed to learn from your mistakes and work on being a better person so you don’t repeat them, but that can’t happen if you’re consumed with what took place in the past.

So how do you stop regretting things?

It’s tough because regret is just a natural part of life. We’re going to make mistakes, and we’re going to regret some of them. It happens. But there are a few things that can reduce or extinguish the need to constantly lament:

Understand

You can really change your perspective on something by trying to understand it in its entirety. This means understanding what led up to the mistake happening, as well as why you made it.

Once you’re able to do this, you’ll come to terms with your actions, and they won’t make you feel nearly as bad as they did before. You’ll have a deeper understanding and will be much less likely to make the same mistakes again.

People forgive and forget

One of the main reasons for us feeling anxiety and regret over our pasts is our fear of the way people will think of us.

But what if I told you that most people have full lives to live and don’t spend their days worrying about something awful you did to them.

People have this remarkable ability to forgive and move on, even though they might not have expressly declared forgiveness.

This is a mechanism that most right-thinking people have within them, which makes life manageable. If it wasn’t present, it would be impossible to get anything done, as we’d constantly be dwelling on all of life’s wrongs.

Forgive yourself

Moving past the pain of your previous transgressions requires forgiving yourself. You need to appreciate that everyone makes mistakes – no one is infallible. We’re all just feeling our way through this thing we call life, and there is no instruction manual. We’re going to screw up.

You’re not the first person to make a mistake, and you won’t be the last. So forgive yourself, release the weight of the past from your shoulders, and get on with your life, now that you’re wiser for having made errors.