HOW TO OVERCOME REGRETS YOU ALREADY HAVE.

Every bad decision we made in the past is done — none of them can be changed.

And in fact there’s some good in every one of those bad decisions too, if we choose to see it. Just being able to make a decision at all is a gift, as is being able to wake up in the morning, and being able to learn and grow from our wide-ranging life experiences.

We are not actually what we envision ourselves to be, at least not always.

We are human and therefore we are multi-layered and imperfect. We do good things, we make mistakes, we give back, we are selfish, we are honest, and we tell white lies sometimes. Even when we are doing our absolute best, we are prone to slip. And once we embrace this and get comfortable with our humanness, making a bad decision tends to conflict a lot less with our new, more flexible (and accurate) vision of ourselves.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done, but whenever you find yourself obsessing over and regretting a past decision, you can 1) acknowledge that you’re falling into this pattern, 2) realize that there’s some ideal or fantasy you’re comparing your decisions and yourself to, and 3) let go of this ideal or fantasy and embrace a wider range of reality by making peace with what’s behind you, so you can focus more on what’s ahead.

It takes constant practice.

But you won’t regret it.