Why is this subject of regret crucial for a well-lived life?
Because thinking carefully about the things we are likely to regret can help re-calibrate and review the way we live.
Unless you put in the effort now to over turn this mistakes as a young person
1- Following the Crowd In Order to Fit In or Earn Approval
You will regret all the times you said yes when you prefer to have said no.
You will regret having become a false self, both physically and emotionally, in order to try to impress others, to get approval, the desire to attic and integrate.
You’ll wish you had the confidence and daring to do what you wanted to do and what felt authentic for you, rather than what society and others were pressuring you to.
You will feel sad that you changed yourself, mentally, physically or emotionally, in order to integrate yourself with the society or impress others rather than stay strong and remained to whom you really are.
You will be bored, you have not followed your own heart and, instead, followed in the footsteps and influence of other people.
2- Not Taking Chances
This could be trying out that new job that excites you, though feels like a risk.
It could be making the leap and moving to a new place that intrigues you, to give it a chance.
It could be asking out that person who has captured your interest, but who you are intimidated to talk to.
It could be a relationship that is no longer good or healthy for you, although it means to jump into the unknown.
This could mean taking a bet to get that degree to then enter the career path that calls you.
This can mean reaching out and apologize to someone you love who is angry with you. Swallow your pride, taking responsibility for your behavior, humbling yourself, and risking reaching out.
For many of these, though certainly not all, you’ll regret not having taken the chance, not having given it a shot.
You will then be left wondering, what if? What could have been? Why didn’t I do it? What was I so afraid of? Why did I play it so safe? What might I have missed out on?
“It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not.”
— Randy Pausch
3- Not Putting In the Effort Toward Your Health and Fitness
This point relates to everything health-wise.
Exercise several times a week (ideally every day)
Enough sleep
Eat healthy (which takes the discipline, and often means saying no to something you want to consume but knowing is harmful for your body)
Do not eat wheat or sugar. I realize not everyone will agree, but that’s ok. A lot of science says otherwise.
Grain Brain by Dr. Perlmutter, Wheat Belly by Dr. Davis, The Perfect Health Diet by two doctors and Ph.D. studies, The Paleo Manifesto by John Durant, The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes, Why We Get Fat and What We Can Do About It by Gary Taubes, and The Paleo Diet all say this over and over, and point to research on it.
Wheat destroys our bodies and brains. It causes diabetes, heart problems, gives you a belly, wrecks your skin, is addicting, and even contributes to Alzheimer’s. Sugar does several of those same things.
Not sitting for hours every day but instead, move a lot
Stretching
Pay special attention and attend your mental health
Laugh and play often
Drink enough water (and it’s likely more than you think because most people move through their partially dehydrated days)
Do not eat every hour and instead, keep several hours between meals
You will regret not doing this.
Especially when health issues later befall you, such as heart problems, diabetes, weight gain, joint issues, Alzheimer’s (which, according to both Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter and Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Ph.D. is caused by both not getting enough sleep and eating wheat).
You will then wish you’d decided more often on discipline.
Says “no” more often to certain things and pushed you to get up and do other things.
It is so much easier to stay fit and maintain your health now than to let it fall by the wayside and deal with it later when you have health problems.
It takes months and years to get in good shape, but only a few weeks of unhealthy living to destroy it.
That’s why you should create habits and implement now today, this allows you to create and maintain your physique, your musculoskeletal system and a healthy cardiac traffic system.
Do not continue to extinguish this work before later. Do not continue to make exceptions and excuses.
You will have to ask yourself, in many moments it’s worth it for 5 minutes of delicious taste now in exchange for possible health problems later?
Most often, you decide to just go ahead and eat it, you are more likely to have health problems in exchange.
If you want to live an able-bodied, long, healthy life, you must do this, and yes, it often means making tough choices. It will be worth it, though, as you have your health for decades.
4- Staying Within Your Bubble
This is similar not to take chances.
Staying in your bubble, however, it’s more like never to try to make new friends.
It’s always eating at the same restaurants.
It’s staying in the same job for your entire life.
It’s not letting go of the relationships in your life that are unhealthy or make you unhappy, but clinging out of comfort and history.
He always sticks to the same habits and routines.
It never grows or never challenges you.
It’s never bold. It always takes the easy and more comfortable way.
That too, you are very likely to regret.
5- Not Biting the Bullet and Making Time For the Things Important to You
This can be anything. The book you are talking about to write for years and never did it. You want to learn to play guitar and never try.
That you keep thinking you will spend more time with your children or your beloved pets, and instead, delay, and delay.
You will be fit, and every day, you choose to sit on the couch. You want to change your diet but keep eating anything good with a little without discipline. You want to go back to school and get the degree, but it felt too daunting work-wise, so you never did.
You will regret all the things you want to do, the things you like, the purpose you have, things that make your interest on, and you never put time or effort towards them.
6- complain all the time
The world will always have many problems. Sometimes it will look worse than any other time.
It’s not to say we shouldn’t admit and talk about these things. We must and we have to. If not, there is no hope of changing it.
But, to reflect on them and complain all the time, just reduce the quality of our lives more. It destroys your mental health, makes your life more unhappy, and will alienate many good people around you.
Life will always be difficult in various ways. There will also always be a lot of excitement and aspects of extraordinary life.
Choose for (more time) Focus on positive aspects of life, what you can change about what you don’t like in the world (and then do it), and vice versa, what makes life so big.
When the end of your life comes, you will regret not doing this.
7- Not Putting In the Time Toward Your Friendships (and other meaningful social connections)
Think of special friends, near emotions, which you have during your life. This type of connection does not grow on the tree.
Maybe you’ve had a handful, in which case, you are lucky. Some people have had none.
Friends are easy to find. Genuine, truly awesome friends with whom you have a deep connection? Those are harder.
You will regret later, don’t have time and effort to keep this special connection in your life. You will feel sad about not having put in the work to maintain these relationships. And yes, it takes some work. However, on the big picture? So, it’s very valuable.
8- Not Reading More
Books offer us so much wealth. Endless number. You can learn anything from the book.
How to speak a language, how to garden, baking or cooking, health science, dog training, engineering, new insights about friendship and romantic relationships, what living in another culture might be like, and what it might feel like to live as someone of a different gender, race, or sexuality from you.
Books transport us to other worlds and perspectives.
They give us a chance to live a lot of other life, regardless of our own.
They give us entertainment, joy, imagination, and thought provocation.
There are millions of books out there for taking, and on each subject you can imagine. Literally there is something out there for everyone.
The other purpose and gift of books? They can make you a better person, a healthier person, a wiser person, if you let them and open for it.
This is part of the point of reading. To read something, learn from it, and then incorporate it into your life.
Not every book will do this, of course, but many of them can and will if you let them and try.
Not reading is a huge, huge loss and something to miss out on. It may be something you later regret not having done more of.