Pocket Change – How to Live a Life With No Regret

A life with no regret? Say What?!

Yes, I know, I know. You are probably thinking that a life without regret is impossible. Or maybe possible if you never go ANYWHERE or do ANYTHING or have any kind of relationship with any other human being on this planet.

Up until a few weeks ago, I felt the same way. I could look back on MANY experiences in my life with regret in my heart. And I simply excepted that that’s just the way life is. But something happened recently that has completely changed my understanding of regret, and helped me realize that it really doesn’t have to be part of our lives.

So here’s what happened. I was sitting in church, which is ordinary for me. I’m a regular church-goer. But that particular day I was blessed to be there alone. Don’t get me wrong, I love that I have a husband who goes with me, and that we can together teach our children what’s important to us. But having a 15 month old and a 2 ½ year old climbing all over me isn’t exactly conducive to actually knowing what’s going on while I’m at church. Usually I’m whispering for the fifteenth time, “No, Mama doesn’t want your soggy pretzel stick! Thanks anyway!”.

So anyway… this week was a welcome break to the norm, and it gave me the chance to actually pay attention and learn something. And what I learned came from a young man, probably about 22 years old, who was sharing about how his experiences, both good and bad, had changed him and brought him to a better place. He shared a lot of great things. Things I could relate to. Things that many of us go through in this thing we call life. I enjoyed what he was sharing. And then, out of no where he goes, “I don’t believe in regret.”

WHAT?! Riiiiiiiight. EVERYONE has regret! And so on went the thoughts through my head. But just before I let my first instinct get the better of me, I caught this little gem of what he said next –

“There are no regrets when we learn from our mistakes.”

Wait, what?!? That little sentence took me by surprise. So simple, and yet so wise. I immediately thought of a couple of particularly poignant events in my life that have always weighed down my heart with regret. When I thought about them in the light of learning from them, something amazing happened. As I realized that I had, in fact, learned some pretty important lessons from those experiences, I felt the heaviness lift and a peace replace it.

And this is where I zoned out from the rest of what was said. I found myself thinking back to different regrets of my life, and with each I asked myself “What did I learn from that?” And that heaviness for light, sorrow for peace thing happened again and again. It was AWESOME!

TRY IT! (I dare you!!!)

I think we have often heard the phrase “Live a life with no regrets.” And kudos to all of us who try to do the right thing and not make mistakes. But since we’re human, let’s give ourselves a break. We all know that mistakes will come. We will fall, we will falter and we will fail. But, IF WE LEARN, we have absolutely no reason to regret those failings! We don’t have to hold on to the sadness that comes from mistakes, if we can realize what there is to gain from them.

So go do it! Free yourself! Learn from what you’ve messed up and turn it into something beautiful! I hope you will find, as I have, that I life free of regret is, in fact, quite possible.