In life, regrets are inevitable – kind of like paying taxes and dying. Pardon the morbidity, and I don’t mean to be fatalistic, but people always have regrets no matter how much they do or don’t do; no plan is perfect when it comes to the big decisions for the future; you will be disappointed with the outcome of your final choices.

But for those of us who let regrets paralyze our present, it’s time to accept what is. I urge you to give up regretting what could have been. Regrets and mistakes are not the same; regrets are typically perceived as mistakes. It’s time to start constructively dealing with your regrets by identifying them accurately.

Regrets come from perceived mistakes about the choices you have made and the course your life has taken as a result. It always seems as if the grass would have been greener had you chose another path – and the fact is that it may very well have turned out better. Between career regrets, money regrets, relationship regrets, health regrets, many people get incredibly caught up in what they wish was or wasn’t. This only makes the situation worse. You could never have anticipated that your decisions would turn out less than successful. At the time you may not have had a choice in the matter or you didn’t ask advice from the people who would have done better to listen to. Sometimes you never really gave enough thought to the impact of your decision and the outcome feels like a bite in the backside now.

So, ask yourself if you really made a mistake or if you are just regretting the way things turned out? Do not erode your confidence, self esteem and self respect by interpreting regret as a personal mistake of judgment. Okay?