We are all guilty of this, and it has to STOP.

Have you ever been choked full of regrets?

Hating yourself for doing something stupid...

Lost hope for the future because of something you did in the past...

Wishing things could be different...

Well, if you want to live a fulfilling life then you need to understand this.

Regrets are pointless.

Yup I said it, having regrets are absolutely pointless.

Everything you ever did wrong, there's no point regretting it.

You might think that if you regret doing something then you won't do it again in the future.

While that works for some of us, it still places an unnecessary amount of stress and worry on us.

Stress and worry that has detrimental side effects.

Learning from your mistakes doesn't mean you have to regret making mistakes.

In fact, it's fearing mistakes and the associated regret you get afterwards that stunts our self development! The fear of failure deserves its own article though, so that will be a post for another time.

Now behold...

The power of hindsight.

When you've screwed up and you look back in hindsight, you have 2 choices - Regret what you did, OR learn from the mistake.

People tend to think that we need to be regretful in order to learn from our mistakes, but all we really need is the want to learn from our mistake so that they done happen again in the future.

Hindsight is a double edged sword:

When used correctly, it is a powerful tool to improve yourself.

However, hindsight can also be your undoing - replaying mistakes in your head, regretting over and over again.

Don't do that to yourself.

The consequence is punishment enough.

Understand that the consequences of your mistake is more than enough punishment.

You don't have to keep thinking about it and regretting the incident.

Unfortunately most of us are stuck in that cycle, we think about it and feel bad, then think about it again and feel worse.

Most of the time we don't even change the things we do, and we get back to doing the same regretful things again.

Then we beat ourselves up for doing that "stupid" thing again.

Once is enough!

You burn your hand touching something hot, that's punishment enough!

You don't keep thinking about how stupid you are for burning yourself.

You don't get depressed because you are full of regret from burning yourself.

You just know that you never want to feel that again, so you learn from the experience and don't touch that thing again.

And it's the same with everything else in life.

Regrets won't change anything.

Regretting something won't change the fact that it already happened.

Nothing can change the past (unless you figure out time travel).

But learning and adapting can change the future.

You can spend your entire life regretting something and it won't change anything.

Or you can devote your life to replacing "regret" with "learning".

That will change everything.

Stop wishing things were different.

Cause wishing won't do anything unless you have a big blue guy stuck in a lamp.

Things can be different, YOU can make things different.

You just need to stop wishing, and start doing.

You are your own genie.

So what are you regretting right now?

I'd like you to comment on your biggest regret right now, then let it go :)

Find the lesson in the mistake, and learn from it.

- Zacke