Tapping into the power of regret

Looking back on my life, I have many regrets.

I love when a book shifts my perspective – and, before reading Daniel Pink’s book The Power of Regret – I was often one to say that I have no regrets, because every misstep has led to where I am now.

However, the simple truth is that I absolutely have regrets (many of them!) Things I wish I had done differently, situations I wish I had handled differently, words I would take back and say another way (or not at all) over the course of my life. Most of us do. “Being imperfect, making mistakes, and encountering life difficulties is part of the shared human experience”.

And, just like learning from our failures is key to success in innovation, so is learning from our regrets key to our growth as human beings. We don’t grow from the mistakes or negative experiences alone – but rather from reflecting upon them with self-compassion. In taking the time to identify our regrets and think about them - in particular those that elicit the most intense negative feelings in us – we are given the opportunity to deepen our connection to ourselves and discover what we ultimately value. And then in turn, we can use that learning to change our behaviour and influence our actions going forward – becoming a little bit better (and more aligned with who we want to be and how we want to show up in the world) every day.

What do you regret and what has that taught you about what you value?