Losing The Weight Of Regret
Posted Nov 22, 2019 10:26 AM
Losing The Weight Of Regret
By Natas
How often do you think back to a moment of failure, or a moment of embarrassment, be it in a professional setting or a social one? How many nights have you spent lying in bed wondering what you should have done or said instead, how you could have avoided it or changed the outcome? Let's be honest, we all have. Either through our innocence, naivety, foolishness or a simple and honest mistake, we've all at one point done something we regret. It could be an absolutely tiny moment of insignificance that just eats away at you, or it could be something you're reminded of every day. But, it doesn't have to be that way.
It's a simple old truth, but we cannot change the past. Even in the fantasies of time travel, you could change it but the event still happened for you to want to change it, so we must accept that fact to begin with. The past is a rigid ledger of all that has happened, and we cannot edit that ledger, no matter how much we want to. So, what can we do? The next step after the initial acceptance is to understand that the only thing we can change is the way we perceive the past. The most powerful thing you have is your ability to perceive things, in every sense of the word.
In your personal life, you get by from understanding situations in your own way, and responding to them in your own way. We're shaped by society since our youth in the form of schooling, education, and social interactions we have along the way. This then translates into business when you start your career or casual working life, your perceptions become more tuned and honed as you experience more, while still being shaped by others, consciously or subconsciously. The television and film we watch, the music we listen to, and the art we read or view all has an influence on us, but we choose those certain avenues of entertainment through our choices and personal tastes, which is really where our true perceptions lie.
Much like how you have the ability to choose what you enjoy, and discover more things in the niches that you have interest in, you can choose to perceive the past and your regrets in different lights. What was a bad business decision that cost you in the past, is now a very valuable lesson that taught you humility or patience in business. That moment you did or said something you wish you hadn't, and hurt someone or ruined a relationship of some kind, can now be the moment you truly appreciated the power of your actions and words. When you accept that your perception is your power, you can reshape the way you used to view things and how they've affected you, and start to live a life renewed.
