How To Live Your Life Without Regret

Note: This post was originally published on BrianTracy.com

Have you ever done something that you deeply regret? Do you wish you could go back and change what happened?

How do you move on and learn to live life with no regrets?

I have lived, traveled and worked in almost 120 countries throughout the world and have found myself in every type of situation.

We have all done things in life that we would not necessarily go back and do again, but does that mean we must live with regret?

I left home to see the world at 18 or 19 years old and didn’t come back for 10 years. So I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I wouldn’t go back and do again.

Here are a couple of my thoughts on how to live with no regrets:

1) Let Yourself Off The Hook

One of the greatest problems in life is that we don’t forgive ourselves for the mistakes that we’ve made. We carry them around and we beat ourselves up about them.

Understand this, the person who did those things in your past is not the same person you are today. In fact, you are a completely different person with different experiences, different knowledge, different wisdom, and different insights.

The person who did those things that you regret is not you. It was a younger version of yourself. Almost like another person all together.

So let yourself off the hook.

2) Everyone Makes Mistakes

Making mistakes is a normal part of life. It’s as natural as breathing in and breathing out. They are what help us grow and learn. They are what help us become different versions of ourselves.

The next time you are feeling burdened by regret, try saying to yourself:

“I freely forgive myself for any mistake that I have ever made.”

And repeat it.

If you do that, and actually forgive yourself, you can move forward and get on with your life.

3) Look For The Lesson

Finally, try to ask yourself:

What did I learn from this experience? What is this experience trying to teach me? Should I be doing more of something or less of something so I don’t make this same mistake again?

If you look into your most difficult experiences for a lesson, you will always find one.

As long as you learn from each experience, and take that learning with you to other experiences, that’s progress. That’s living without regret.

Before we wrap up, I’d like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers:

“Your life today is the result of all of your choices and decisions in the past. When you make new choices, you create a new future.” @BrianTracy 

Now I’d love to hear from you. So my question today is:

What have you done in your life to move past things you regret?

Leave a comment below, and share your experience.

If you want to gain more self-confidence and learn to truly forgive and live without regret, take my self-confidence assessment.