The power of regret
David Murdoch, The Wealth Activist?
Wealth Activist?. Financial Advisor for individuals, families and private companies. Bringing together money mindset, asset management and intergenerational wealth. There’s more to wealth than money alone.
We’ve all experienced regret. Bad financial decisions, opportunities lost, interpersonally…it comes in many forms. But is regret always a bad thing?
A book that I came across recently, The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink, unpacks this all-consuming emotion and discusses how to best use regret to make changes in life for the better.
The author discusses various approaches to dealing with regret, with the key theme being to take the learnings from mistakes made and use them for your success in the future. For example, you buy shares in a company on the advice of a friend and within a short time the stock price plummets and you’ve lost money. There is bad press coverage of the company so you decide to take the loss and sell the shares before the price drops any lower.
The regret of a financial loss can be something that gnaws away you. But you have a choice. Wallow in it or reflect on the why and how of your experience and use it to make better decisions in the future. Think about what could have been done differently, such as research into the company, and how you felt emotionally at the time you made the decision. Were you looking for a quick win investment to offset a cashflow problem? Or were you acting on the tip of your friend to strengthen the friendship?
By understanding your actions, you increase your financial knowledge through experience, which leads to better decisions and outcomes in the future.
Click here for the book summary, it’s worth a read.
We often talk about Money Mindset, which can be greatly affected by regret. Reach out today if you need to talk through your mindset and how that’s affecting the financial decisions you’ve made.