I’d Rather Regret: Do regrets have a place in our life? If they do, is their purpose any better than giving us lessons to prevent such occurrences in the future? You see, we constantly keep moving – whether it is ahead or not, but we keep moving. The direction of travel is where we need to control our lives going ahead. In this quote analysis by Lucille Ball on regrets, we need to talk about why we regret, how to use it to move on with our lives.
Before we delve into the quote, I’d like to ask – why do you regret it? You may come back and say that you live a life without regrets, but experience has taught me that although it is a great philosophy to have, it is not the easiest to live by. There are numerous occurrences that make us think – I wish I had handled that differently. It could be some lost relationships or business conversations.
Why do we regret?
Let’s talk about the purpose of regret? What makes you regret in life – is it your actions or outcomes? Or is it the outcomes based on your actions? I perhaps fall into the latter category, although that makes me raise another question.
Most of my actions are based on the best of knowledge and experience at that point in time. This is the scenario where I point you to the quote – Wisdom comes with experience but the experience is a lack of Wisdom. At any point in time, if I’m not proud of what I’ve done – I’m rather doing an injustice to my knowledge, emotions and personality at that point in time.
However, the real source of regret is when we don’t live up to our values or standards. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks, the regrets boil down to your personal definitions of life and how you decide to live by them. These regrets normally manifest in the words – If only I had done something or I wish I did it differently.
At this point, I’d like to point you to the crux of the quote – I’d rather regret the things that I’ve done.
I’d rather regret the things that I’ve done meaning
You can look at your life’s experiences in as many ways as possible, but the past really isn’t going to come back. The same applies to regrets too. You must stop to ask this question – is this regret making me live in the past?
If the answer is you – then immediately you need to coach a new behaviour to prevent yourself from falling into the trap. I’m not saying it is easy, but I’m saying that it needs to be a conscious effort. The moment you know that something is taking you down a spiral of thoughts that don’t benefit you, it needs a conscious break.
In this instance, if you’re afraid and want to prevent any regrets in life – then think about this – what about the things that you don’t do because of fear? If you choose that, you can live life in a different manner – You are a summary of all your experiences at any point in time. Find a way to be proud of that even if things are not working for you at the moment. (Related: Never regret a day in your life)
Regrets come and go because they are trying to tell you something. Maybe these regrets are preparing for the future. The only reason some emotions resurface is that they want you to do something. In this case, they want you to learn something and show these emotions that you’ve done something about it.
Going beyond regrets in life
The central theme of this quote is to identify the best route for your personality and emotional self. These regrets manifest either as fear or caution to us. The trick is in making the best use of these emotions to serve your needs. None of these thoughts come and goes in vain. They always have a meaning and require certain actions.
The only reason these thoughts keep coming back is that they want to be addressed and listened to. In other words, these thoughts are crying out for your attention. If at any point you find your regrets holding you back from taking an action – think about this – you are responsible for the things that you don’t do as well.
Regrets will come and haunt you for the things that you did not do. They come in the form of – if only I did this, then something would’ve happened. This is called wishful thinking which is a little worse than regrets because they create a false image of yourself to make you feel better. The agenda is not to make you feel better but to create results that matter to you.
On that note, I’d like to complete the quote of the day section with these powerful words by Lucille Ball.
“I’d Rather Regret The Things That I have Done Than The Things That I Have Not”
– Lucille Ball (Source)
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A wonderful post, Vinay. I loved the way you have explained the quote :)
Thank you Purba :). Happy you liked the representation :)
Really inspiring and self realising article.
Great read !!
Thank you Shraddha, glad you enjoyed the post :)
Unless and until we introspect, there are negligible chances of self-improvement. We shouldn’t be guilty or embarrassed to repent as eventually it would make us better people teaching us wise lessons of life. Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful and motivational post Vinay. Regretting is way too practical that repeating those mistakes again and again. :)
True Maitreni. Thank you for these thoughts – I agree, there is no way we can go ahead in life unless we look within and understand what more is required of us to make a difference to our own lives. The best part is that the lessons will be different for each one of us and the impact we can make for ourselves can be momentous :)
Love the quote and the way you have elucidated it… :-)
THank you for the kind words Archana :). It sure is a beautiful quote, I enjoyed writing about it.
How I agree with this quote. Trial and error gives a chance to improve, while without trying there is no chance for improvement. Btw Vinay this look of your blog is good.
Thank you Somali :). I agree,without making those experiments, we are constatly putting ourselves at loss. It is like the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote which says – All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
It’s a wise way to think and, I would rather say, it’s always better to think in this way. Helps to introspect and improve eventually… :-)
Thank you Maniparna. I couldn’t agree more. The first few times will be a conscious effort and slowly without even our knowledge it starts becoming a part of our stock response which will be an amazing transition :)