Regret is often the outcome of failure.
Regret is not always easy to process, and most of the time it keeps us living in the past.
However, it can also be the result of a poor decision.
Sometimes it’s a hard lesson learned.
Regret, at its core, is an emotion.
But you do not have to feel regret when you think of your past decisions that turned out less than perfect.
You might even need to be thankful that it happened.
1. Character Building
Failure, and poor decisions, all build character.
Our character is continuously changed and shaped throughout our lifetime.
The most authentic way of building character is through experience.
The experiences you have, good and bad, will ultimately shape your personality into a better and more robust version of what you started with.
2. There’s a Reason for Everything
“Everything happens for a reason” is a super cliché, but it’s true.
Be it a bad relationship or a mistake on an important project or school assignment.
There is a reason why it happened.
Sometimes that reason is just learning a lesson (starting early on a big project), or maybe that bad relationship allowed you to meet the love of your life.
When regret weighs heavy, take a step back and look at your life’s big, interlocking picture.
3. Lessons Learned
We all have to learn lessons.
That’s just a fact of life.
Instead of feeling remorse for every past decision you have made.
Look back at all the lessons you have learned and the wisdom you now have to move forward more prepared than when you started.
Be thankful for the opportunity to learn.
4. Success Isn’t Free
The reality is no success is free.
For every achievement you see, someone somewhere has to pay for it.
Therefore, it stands to reason that you will also pay for success.
For every failure you experience and every regret you feel, you are that much closer to having paid your dues and learned your lessons.
It’s simply another experiential tool you will need in your toolbox to make your success a reality.
Regret and success are fickle creatures.
You cannot have one without the other.
However, we can become so distracted by our remorse that we can’t see the success just around the corner.
And with each failure, we’ve marked off another way of how not to do something.
Reframing your regret will open up a new world of possibilities for your past decisions and future self.
Regret and failures are opportunities
To see failure as an opportunity is not putting a Pollyanna spin on reality.
It’s accepting that everyone fails, and you can choose to learn from your mistakes, or you can stay stuck in them.
Failure will help you be kinder to yourself.
Seeing failure in its proper light will make you more forgiving of your flaws.
You will be less of a perfectionist and less prone to self-doubt.
And that, in turn, will build your self-confidence and make you more likely to succeed!
So, embrace failure, learn from it and use it as a stepping stone to success.
