I always find it peculiar when people say they don’t have any regrets in life.

The reasoning always seems to fall in line with the whole everything they’ve done makes them who they are today argument.

For me, it’s a different story. I have many regrets in my life.

I regret being so lazy as a young person: being lazy with chores, with schoolwork and just about everything I wanted to accomplish. There was always an excuse and if there was a path of least resistance, you can be sure I was on it.

I regret caring so much about what people thought of me.

I really regret trying to impress people that I really didn’t care for and will probably never see again.

I regret some decisions I made that got me into some trouble.

I regret starting college for the second time. I don’t regret the schooling, the people I met or what I learned there, but I certainly regret the choice to do it. I knew my heart wasn’t into it and sure enough, I was University bound the following year in a program I loved.

I regret not using the time that I had to really push for my goals and dreams. Time is the most valuable commodity on the planet because you can’t get it back–ever. To have wasted so much of it when I had it in abundance is painful to think about some days.

I regret not having kids earlier.
However, this regret has a caveat because there was some medical issues for me even having kids in the first place. So on that note, I still feel very blessed for having kids at all.

I regret being shy about challenging people when I knew that they were wrong, or when I disagreed with them.

I could keep going and probably fill an entire book on the regrets that I have and why I have them.

But…I don’t live with these regrets. I have them, but I don’t live with them. It’s a waste of life to sit around think, what if?

What makes regret hard, especially when you have so many, is the extraordinary effort to change course. It takes a significant amount of time and the results don’t come into fruition until many years later. But even a gentle nudge can set a completely different destination.

In my case, I’ve been pushing hard for years to veer elsewhere, taking with me the many good decisions I’ve made.

And if there’s one thing I can pass along to my students, kids, to anyone reading this site is to not let your regrets stop you from becoming a better person tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day.

Chart a new course now.