“Non, je ne regrette rien,” Edith Piaf famously sang.
“No, there’s nothing I regret.”
If there ever were a top ten of useless, disempowering emotions, regret would be at the top of my list.
What’s the last thing you’ve regretted, lately?
Not jumping at an opportunity? Not buying a piece of equipment while it was on sale? Not making up with your partner? Not following up with a potential client?
Regret almost always starts with a question, and ends with a perhaps:
“If only… then maybe….”
“If only I had kept my big mouth shut, then maybe…”
“If only I had studied more, then maybe…”
“If only I had left the house earlier, maybe…”
Questions like that are the mental equivalent of Chinese water torture. They can haunt people until the day they die.
TURNING THE CLOCK BACK
A mother who lost her only son during the war in Iraq still believes she should have done more to talk him out of a military career.
A father believes that if only he’d shown a bit more affection, his daughter wouldn’t have become addicted to drugs.
A colleague is still upset about an important audition she lost two weeks ago. She’s sure she didn’t get the job because she couldn’t keep her nerves under control.
Here are the facts.
The producer and director thought my “nervous” colleague came across as confident. They agreed she is a very talented actress. She just didn’t have the right looks for the part.
The girl with the drug addiction thinks the world of her father. She’s in rehab, and takes full responsibility for her own actions.
Nothing could have convinced the soldier-son not to enlist. He felt a strong inner urge to serve and protect his country, and he died saving the lives of his brothers-in-arms.
HARSH JUDGEMENT
Regret is problematic, because it’s based on a harsh evaluation of the past, using the knowledge and notions we have now.
One of my friends was showing me her high school pictures, and she constantly commented on how “stupid” she looked in those “dumb clothes” her mother made her wear. She hated her glasses, and called her sixties haircut “horrendous.” Browsing through her yearbooks, pretty much every girl looked like her: big hair, weird clothes, and yes… huge frames. At that time, this was perfectly normal, even fashionable.
It’s unfair and irrational to explain or judge the past using today’s standards.
There’s another reason why we should not use what we know today, to look at yesteryear.
Present knowledge is unhelpful because it’s limited, and colored by personal ideas of how we think this world works or should work. Present knowledge doesn’t change the past one bit. It just changes our perspective.
My actress-friend was sure that her nerves caused her to lose the audition. She couldn’t be more wrong, and yet she kept on beating herself up about it day after day. It was a terrible waste of time and energy over something she couldn’t do anything about anyway: her looks.
THE PAST IS NO MORE
Regret makes you a prisoner of the past, and of your own imagination.
The past is a given. It’s dead. What has happened, happened, and cannot be undone (the word “regret” comes from the French “regretter,” and originally meant “lamenting over the dead”).
What’s really underneath the notion of regret, is a hidden desire to control. In a universe of infinite possibilities, we secretly want the world to go one way. Our way. This manifests itself through simplistic “if this… then that”-thinking.
“If you work long and hard enough, then you’ll be successful.”
“If you treat people with respect, then they will treat you with respect too.”
“If you lead a healthy lifestyle, then you’ll live a long life.”
That would only be fair, wouldn’t it?
We all know that life isn’t fair. It just is. Bad things happen to good people, and the other way around.
The mother whose son went to war, wished she’d been able to make him change his mind. She blamed herself for failing to do that, and it made her miserable. At an unconscious level, she even felt responsible for his death, and she couldn’t shake the feeling.
I would tell her the following.
If you want to get over regret, you have to learn to accept one thing:
It’s hard enough to control oneself, let alone someone else.
People have free will, and make choices based on their ideas. Not yours.
In order to give up regret, you have to acknowledge that you’re very rarely in complete control. Without total control, you can’t be held 100% responsible for everything that happens as a result of what you did or didn’t do. Cause and effect are complicated things.
To some, that notion is freeing. To others it is frightening.
The other “thing” we can’t control (and it’s a biggie) is the future. We can prepare for it, but we can’t bend it to our will.
Life is never a simple game of “if this”…. “then that…” The future is wide open, and filled with endless probabilities and possibilities. Literally anything can happen. It’s impossible to plan for millions of scenarios, and even the best plans fail.
MAKING CHOICES
We can only make decisions based on the information we have access to at a given point in time. The trouble is: we rarely have enough information. The info we do have might be twisted, incomplete, or downright inaccurate.
Had we known better, we’d done better, but we didn’t, so we couldn’t.
Our actions are also directed by the resources we have available at the moment of decision. By resources I mean things like our level of intelligence, education, maturity, experience, skill set, our attitude, and what we’re physically capable of. On some days we’re more resourceful than on other days.
Whether you like it or not, life is an ongoing series of judgment calls, where a split second can mean the difference between a positive outcome, and a not so positive outcome. Quite often, these judgement calls aren’t even based on logic. We might act out of anger, frustration, guilt, or love. Some days we’re Mr. Spock. Other days we act like Captain Kirk.
Ultimately, life itself is highly illogical, unpredictable, and random in the way it unfolds.
OFF THE HOOK
Does this mean we’re totally off the hook, and that we’re absolved of any responsibility?
I wouldn’t go that far.
We must stand behind our decisions, and accept that we are human, fallible, and that we’re never alone. Sometimes things work out the way they were planned, and quite often they do not. On occasion we get more than we bargained for, or less than we expected.
What I am saying is that we should cut ourselves some slack. Instead of beating ourselves up over something we had little or no influence over, we should look deeper.
Sometimes, we have to go through certain experiences that don’t go as planned, so we know better next time. That’s the definition of experience. Instead of regretting what didn’t go our way, we could ask ourselves:
“What has this experience taught me that is positive?”
“What can I do differently next time, to bring about a more desired outcome?”
Once you start doing that, you stop dwelling on the past. You stop playing the blame game, so you can focus on the future.
It also helps to realize that not everything happens for a reason, or for your reasons. And at times, very good things can come out of very bad things. It may just take a while before we’re permitted to see the whole picture.
So, the next time you feel sad or sorry about something you did or didn’t do, please be kind to yourself. Take a deep breath, and move forward.
Always do the best you can. Some days, your best will be better than other days. That’s okay, as long as you stay in the game.
I promise you won’t regret it!
Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice
P.S Be sweet. Please retweet!
Bravo Paul. I sure don’t regret taking the 5 mins to read your latest. Deep breath and move on to the positive today!
Thank you Derek! Now it’s time to put on some Piaf!
How Zen. And so true. Thanks Paul
Incisive as always, Paul. Just yesterday, I was ‘beating myself up’ for failing to match the level of a pickup, but on reflection what a prompt to double-check stacks etc so it will never happen again.
And no harm was done: producer came back asking me to insert the pickup into the complete track to save her time – so she never discovered my earlier booboo.
As you say in your marvellous book, “deal with negative internal dialogue”.
Another great post, Paul! I’ve heard say that, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” After reading your post, I realize that in addition to hating the making of mistakes, I also hate to make decisions of which I’m not completely sure of the best outcome since later on I’ll probably realize that there was a better choice which I could have made. I’ve chalked it up to perfectionism in the past, but I think you’re right. It is simply wanting to be in control. I have such a problem finding good enough that it sometimes holds me back from getting stuff “shipped out the door,” and I think it’s why I have a hard time letting go of something and accepting help on a project. Okay, thanks for the good therapy! 🙂
ps so far 21byfaff!
Paul, I love this post. “Regret makes you a prisoner of the past, and of your own imagination. ” golden!!!!
When we stay mindful in the “present”, that includes being aware of thought we have of our past or future. Our thoughts are part of our present. So – regret, or fond memories? Fear, or lovely dreams of the future?
Yes, still, choice.
thanks!
Thank you for your fabulous responses, Jack, Howard and Scott. Randye, even though we cannot control what happens, we can control who we interpret it, and how respond to what happens. That is indeed choice!
People who’ve never made a mistake have probably never made anything. Learning from our mistakes is how we grow. Enjoyed your piece Paul, it’s made my day. Cheers.
Thank you so much for reading my blog, and for your comment. I’m glad it made your day!
Amen, my friend! As proof, just try walking a twisting path while always looking behind you.
Paul, this piece, whether you wanted it to be or not, is beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to make some sense of the human experience we’re all trying to get through. “Had we known better, we’d done better, but we didn’t, so we couldn’t.” That really stuck out to me, because it is SO TRUE. There are a billion factors that go into how the world perceives you and how your life will unfold in it. I believe that positivity attracts the kind of people, things, and happiness we want. Regret is poisonous and can crush a soul so slowly and painfully. Thanks for taking the time to write this. If I wasn’t a Paul fan before, I am now.
Thank you for gifting me with your kind comment on my birthday, Beau. I am so glad that my words were of help to you. Here’s to living life to the fullest with no regrets!