Live without regrets
With my life's motto "live, love, laugh everyday" I believe that it’s important to live without regrets.
A lifetime of making choices brings with it some mistakes, some ill-considered actions, some unwise decisions and it also means that some unfortunate outcomes could have been avoided. So it's absolutely normal that we accumulate at least some regrets throughout our journey of life. Contemplating what causes regrets, will make you realize that actions as well as inactions can lead to regrets, for example regretting to not seizing an opportunity, not taking more risks, and not spending more time with family.
When bad things happen, we sometimes sit idly by and bemoan our bad judgment or bad luck. I believe that it's worth kicking oneself into action mode and not wait for someone else to take charge of the remedy: if we did something to hurt or offend someone, we apologize and vow to do better in the future. When our actions got us “off course” in some way, we endeavor to set ourselves right and promise change to others and to ourselves.
Failures in professional or personal life can also lead to profound regrets ..... and what's the way out? My inner-most driver has always been to note how much I have learned from the experience, no matter how good or how bad. In other words, I acknowledge that the outcome may have been regrettable, but I mentally offset the regret by identifying a silver lining that consists of how much I profited from the experience.
Besides the silver linings, staying true to my values & beliefs and living with a certain sense of urgency, are my golden nuggets to living without regrets.
The cancer experience has challenged me to accept that there is an end to life and that we actually do not know when life expires.
So if there are regrets – well, then it's up to me to make a change without much delay, to let go, to forgive, whatever it takes. Importantly, I have never considered myself powerless, believing that I cannot change anything. I can always bring about change – it’s starts in my mind, it is in my hands, it's always in my power :-)
