Regret's, you've probably had a few, but one of the most damaging and detrimental feelings we can have is that of regret.
I was interviewed on the BBC Radio Northampton after a survey of the over 50's revealed their biggest regret was not seeing enough of the world?
So what's your biggest regret?
Recently I read another article about our nations biggets regrets, and the top 50 things we'd do if we had our time again.
Do any of these match yours?
50 THINGS WE’D DO ‘IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN’
1. Save more money
2. Be less wasteful with money
3. Make more effort to stay fit
4. Be better with money generally
5. Travel the world
6. Avoid debt
7. Worry less about small things
8. Work harder at school
9. Explore more of the UK
10. Be more confident/outgoing
11. Enjoy more days out
12. Travel more within Europe
13. Go on more weekend breaks
14. Get out of an unhappy relationship
15. Show those closest to me how much I love them
16. Take more exotic holidays
17. Make more effort to keep in touch with friends
18. Find a better job
9. Find a more worthwhile job
20. Push myself harder in my career
21. Take up more hobbies
22. Take more photographs
23. Marry the RIGHT person
24. Be a better son/daughter
25. Visit immediate family more
26. Spend more time with friends
27. Go out more
28. Go to university
29. See and talk to parents more
30. Make more effort to make friends
31. Get a pension
32. Make more time for the children
33. Marry the one who got away
34. Buy, not rent
35. Do more to help people less fortunate than myself
36. Listen to my parents
37. I would work less
38. Buy a bigger / nicer house
39. Be nicer to people
40. Have children earlier
41. Have children
42. Have more children
43. Have more one-night stands
44. Give more to charity
45. Party harder
46. Go on a gap year
47. Be more faithful to partners
48. Use my student discount more effectively
49. Have a bigger wedding
50. Go home for parents / siblings birthdays
That's a lot of regret, most involve changing our past, something that we can't do, bit we can change the way we react and respond to it!
We can feel bad about things, even bemoan our lot once in a while about the things that
we have done that we wish we hadn't, or the things that we haven't done that we wish we
had. But there comes a time when we have to turn a regret into a target.
As long as we hold on to those regrets – about anything in our lives – we are tightly
grabbing the end of an anchor. Regrets can only serve to hold us in place as our focus
is forced to be backwards onto things we can't change, rather than forwards onto the
things we can still influence.
Move on, move up and move forward. Learn from your experiences, but for goodness sake
and for your own sake – let go of the anchor of regret.
Instead why not create a bucket list, if you don't already have one, why not create a
target of all the things you would like to do and experience in your life!
Go on have some fun, and imagine what would you like to do if anything was possible.
Think differently and make it happen!
Christian Baker