Introduction

On October 24, 1960, Charles Dumont, a composer, nervously visited Edith Piaf's Paris apartment. Piaf was a global superstar! Initially reluctant to even meet them, she agreed to hear just one song from Dumont and his lyricist partner Michel Vaucaire. The song? "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I regret nothing at all"). The two-minute song became her signature anthem, with over a million copies sold within a year. Its defiant lyrics ("It's paid, swept away, forgotten. I couldn't care...

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Your Regrets Are Actually Good For You

Let's talk about that gnawing feeling you get when you think about the job you didn't take, the relationship you let slip away, or the words you wish you hadn't said. That's regret - and contrary to what thousands of self-help books, pop songs, and tattooed arms might tell you, it's not your enemy!!!Daniel Pink's research reveals something fascinating: 82% of Americans regularly look back and wish they'd done things differently. That's more people than those who regularly floss their...

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Your Regrets Are Actually Teaching You Something

It should be clear by now that if you ever wished you could go back in time and make a different choice, you're not alone. Pink's examination of regret reveals something profound: our remorse has patterns and while the surface details vary, the deep structure always fell into one of these four fundamental categories:Foundation regrets stem from failures to be responsible. Jason Drent exemplifies this perfectly. Despite rising to executive positions in retail, at age forty-three he has "nothing to...

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How to Undo What's Done and Find Silver Linings

Jeff Bosley thought he was making a statement. At twenty-nine—the oldest recruit at Fort Bragg—he wanted to fit in with his fellow soldiers. So one night, he and some buddies visited a tattoo parlor where, for about a hundred dollars, Jeff got nine black letters inked onto his left arm in Papyrus font: NO REGRETS.Fast forward fourteen years. Jeff's marriage had ended. His college career had stalled across eight years and two schools with no degree. And his dream of...

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Constructive Regret Management

Not every regret comes with a clear path to fixing it. Sometimes, at least is just not enough. Like for Cheryl Johnson, who watched a treasured friendship with her college classmate Jen fade over two decades. Like many of us, she carried this regret silently, unsure how to process it or learn from it. But as we've been explaining, regret doesn't have to be just an uncomfortable emotion we try to suppress. Research shows we can transform it into a...

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Anticipating Regret

The story of regret usually begins with "If only I had..." But what if we turned that around? What if instead of letting regret haunt us from the past, we could use it as a spotlight illuminating our path forward? That's exactly what Alfred Nobel did when he read his own obituary.In 1888, he had a bizarre experience - he read his own obituary in the newspaper. A journalist had confused him with his recently deceased brother and published Nobel's...

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Summary

Regret is like this universal membership card to being human. Every time we look back and wince at something we did (or didn't do), we're actually getting a little instruction manual for our future. "Hey, maybe try being kinder next time" or "You know what? Take that risk you've been nervous about." Our regrets are like little nudges pushing us toward better versions of ourselves.