Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work, running, and writing. All are going well. I’m trying to get outside as much as possible before I have to hunker down and hibernate this winter.
Photo credit: annapolis_rose on VisualHunt.comBut enough about that. Today I want to talk about regret. I know it’s not a fun topic, but I believe it’s an important one. I try to live my life without regret. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s doing this. I mean regret is a by product of a painful event. The loss of a love. The road not taken. Spiteful words we can’t take back. All these cause regret.
Photo credit: Neil. Moralee on VisualhuntBut what if we stop for a moment and turn the situation around. Regret happens when we focus on what could’ve been. We imagine our life if we had a different career or a different mate. But our imaginings aren’t what is true. They’re a fantasy we’ve built in our minds. So, what we really regret is something that is false.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s normal to regret saying words that hurt someone, but what we shouldn’t do is spend our present thinking about what could have been. We need to focus on where we want to go, and not where we could’ve gone.
Photo credit: rolfkallman on VisualHunt.comRegret will steal the happiness from your present moment. We need to live in the present because that’s where our happiness is.
So, this is what I do when I start feeling regret, I change my focus to the present moment. I take a second and mentally think about my life goals. The regret I’m feeling isn’t helping me move toward any of them. So, I focus on the present moment and ask myself, how can I move toward my goals at this moment? Then I take the actions that come to mind.
Photo credit: HighSociety Photography on VisualHuntIt works great for me. I spend less time dealing with negative emotions, and more time enjoying the decisions I made along the way. How about you? How do you handle regret? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!
