Five Regrets That Will Always Destroy Your Personal Power

You don't have to die with regrets. It's time to lift the limit on your potential.

Oct 26, 2021

"Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become." — Anonymous

It’s so easy to hit the snooze button on your dreams and desires.

I did it for years.

I suffered from mental illness and knew I needed treatment, yet I did nothing about it. Eventually I got around to it. But I wasted years of my life living in a dark place for no reason.

Developing mental illness didn’t make me have regrets. In fact, it was the best thing to ever happen to me. What I regret is not ending the torture sooner.

Perhaps you have a similar regret? Each of us has unlimited personal power. Regrets take away that power and limit our potential.

These are the worst types of regrets.

1. Not spending enough time with your family

It’s easy to take family for granted. You think your parents will live forever. You accidentally believe your kids will be young for eternity.

Before you know it the inevitable tragedy strikes and the truth slaps you in the face. You wish you could go back and change things but you can’t. So regret takes over and you feel like sh*t.

Family is what helps life make sense.

2. The business you didn't start

I walked away from a startup I co-foundered with more than 100 employees many years ago. The experience left me scarred. I never wanted to start another business again.

So I got a normal job in banking like a good little boy and shut my mouth.

I resisted the daily urges to work on a new business. Even when good opportunities came up I turned them down out of fear they’d turn out the same as my last business attempt. Finally, this year I turned my side hustle into a full-time business. It has been a big success.

My only regret is I could have made the switch more than three years ago. I can’t go back in time. All those hours I wasted working for one horrible dictator boss who treated me worse than a cow ready to be slaughtered for dinner. All those meetings I attended that could have been emails.

The skill of entrepreneurship lies dormant in all of us. Not tapping into it is a huge mistake.

3. The lover you didn't chase

Maybe you haven’t found love yet. Then you meet someone who you’re interested in. But how many times do we stay silent out of fear we will wreck the friendship or the work relationship? Too often.

Love is weird. You’ll never know what the other person is feeling unless you explore it. It’s better to be rejected than to let the love of your life get away.

Love is a chance at happiness.

There’s risk when it comes to finding love. There’s even higher risk when you ignore love and try to exclude it from your life.

4. The country you didn't visit

For the last few months my partner and I have been watching every episode of “Parts Unknown.” The tv show is hosted by Anthony Bourdain who committed suicide a few years ago. He travels through strange parts of the world most people never see.

He interacts with all different cultures. Sometimes it feels as though he’s trapped in time when he visits an ancient tribe in the middle of a rainforest. They have no technology and still hunt the same way they did hundreds of years ago. The insights he has are incredible.

The whole world looks different when you go out and explore it.

Most of us live in a bubble. We think that what happens in our own country is the norm when it’s not.

You’ll regret the places you didn’t see one day. You’ll regret not knowing what the pyramids in Egypt look like when you stand next to them. Or what the middle of a huge city by the Hudson River feels like. Or what it’s like to be chased by bulls down a main street in Spain.

Other cultures help us transcend race and understand humanity. That’s an opportunity you never want to miss.

5. The book you didn't read

Podcaster and author Tim Ferriss measures how many years left he has to live based on the number of books.

We don’t get to read many books in our lifetime. Often, we’ll hear a recommendation from a person we look up to and get a copy. Then it will sit on our bookshelf or inside our Kindle app unread.

Books are a direct USB connection to another person’s mind.

You get to see how they understand the world through words. Some of the rawest most emotional experiences you’ll ever have can come from non-fiction books.

Schedule possible regrets before they become permanent

The trick is to write down your regrets, and to understand what future regrets you’re likely to have. Then rather than dream about them for another minute, use the power of now to schedule regrets in your calendar.

Carve out time in your day to turn regrets into moments that change your life.

Schedule family time.
Start a side hustle after hours.
Make time to explore a possible romantic relationship to see where it leads.
Book travel.
Reserve time at night to read that one book you know you must read, instead of watching Netflix.

Your personal power is found on the other side of regrets. When you stop having so many regrets your fulfillment in life rapidly increases.

If I didn’t decide to quit my job this year then I’d forever be wondering what it’s like to be a young man and own a business at the height of my career. It’s the scariest and best decision I’ve ever made. What got me there is this question:

“If not now, then when?”

The same applies to you. Stop with all the regrets. Turn regrets into time you block off in your calendar to live life and take a few more risks. That way if you ever do meet your former self at the end of your life, you can shake their hand and confidently say “I left nothing on the table, amigo.”

Now is all you got. Use it.

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