No Regrets! Four Big Ones to Avoid at All Costs.

I would LOVE to be able to say that I don’t have any regrets, but I’m only human and I do! (My biggest regret I think is not taking the opportunity to study abroad while in college, FYI. I prioritized crew and, looking back, I should have realized it wasn’t that big of a deal to miss a semester.) Maxie is here today with some tips on how to avoid regrets.

No Regrets! Four Big Ones to Avoid at All Costs.

Guest Post by Maxie McCoy

I think most of us try to live our lives with no regrets. YOLO! It’s become a cultural expectation that we live our day-to-day all out. And while that’s an amazing ideology, it can be hard to actually do. Especially if you don’t realize the big regrets that are quite universal to most of our human experiences.

When you look back on your life thus far, do you have many regrets? Personally, there are some things I wish I’d done differently. Mostly, that in my early years of becoming, that I could or would have been more myself. But also, I know, deeply, that part of the mistakes and the regrets that we do have make us who we are today. And that’s a darn good thing.

There are a few regrets, however, that can be diminished going forward by acknowledging the power they might have over you today. Many regrets have the same through-lines. So by looking at how they’ve affected us and others in the past, we can hopefully avoid them going forward.

Regret #1: That you could have done more…

I was given very good advice this week about a project I’m wildly passionate about. “Whatever happens, you want to look back and know you did everything you could to make this a success,” she told me. And that was such a wonderful intention to think about life like. Relationships, careers, interviews, projects, launches… if you want something, know that you did everything in your power to make it happen.

Regret #2: That you should have spoken your truth…

Whether things work in your favor or not, I think circumstances are much easier to handle when you know that you said your truth. That you really put on the table your true thoughts and feelings. It requires some major vulnerability, but you never want to look back and wish you had said something more true.

Regret #3: That you weren’t yourself…

A normal part of maturation is learning (the hard way) from all the times that you weren’t yourself and how that worked out. If you can look back in any situation and know that you brought your whole self to that table, that you didn’t dim your light, that you were the highest expression of who you are, then it’ll be much easier to deal with whatever happens.

Regret #4: That you let fear win…

Whatever you do, don’t let fear run the show. It will always be there, but you never want to look back and see how fear was the deciding factor to something you did or didn’t do. You can hear what the fear is saying without listening to what it’s saying to do. It’ll be scary, but it’ll always be worth it.

Living a no regrets life isn’t as easy as YOLO. But! It gets easier when you look at all the reasons (like these) that we typically end up regretting things. Whatever you do, be fully, wildly yourself, put it all out on the table, and don’t let fear win.

Maxie writes weekly advice, and you can get it all here.