Have you ever wondered what looking back at the past would look like?
Do you think when you reminisce about the old days, you would be wallowing in regrets over what you could have done better or how you hindered some meaningful growth in your life?
Or would you be bold enough to give yourself a pat on the back for all the decisions you made in the past 10 years?
I know thoughts like this are what many of us struggle with at every point in our lives, especially, when we are saddled with making some important decisions and choices, since most of the choices we make today goes a long way in defining and shaping the opportunities or regrets we get to deal with in the nearest future.
Based on my past experience in mentoring and counselling young adults, professionals and women in different career paths.
I have been opportune to learn more about how a large number of these individuals make plans towards attaining an ideal life, yet, the fast paced lifestyle and daily struggles has its way of getting in the way and causing them to miss out some of the most important parts of their lives or even the chances of living a more fulfilled life without floundering over past regrets.
Most times, the biggest regrets in life we experience often lead us to a place where we constantly battle with self-blame or doubt and these, sometimes becomes a hindrances to focus on the present and also the future ahead of us.
Now, let us go through the 10 biggest regrets in life people tends to struggle with as they look back at how they had spent their lives and also the necessary actions to take to avoid such situations.
10 Things You’ll Regret Not Doing Now In Ten Years
1. Giving up
Life sometimes always gets in the way of accomplishing some of our goals.
When we look at our extremely busy work days, our family life, and other commitments we set our minds to achieve, it might be quite difficult to keep up with some of our set goals, and hence we just give up.
I recently volunteered in an organization to help kids learn how to code.
Despite setting my goals, creating daily to-do list, I still found myself constantly struggling to keep up with my tasks due to how tiring my daily schedules could get.
Which later resulted into me lagging behind in carrying out most of my duties as a volunteer.
A lot of people also get to deal with similar situations which in most cases results into letting go and giving up on such pursuits in the process.
So, one good way to keep track is by being true to yourself, let every goal you set align with your personal purpose and values.
Write them down or just create a bucket list of things you seek to achieve, also make plans for everyday tasks toward achieving your goals.
Most importantly, be cautious of not letting laziness or fear stop you from accomplishing you goals.
Verily, when you strictly adhere to this step, it will be easier not to go into the future unhappy and getting to the deal with several unaccomplished goals as one of your biggest regrets in life.
2. Avoiding change and growth
I know a number of people who always feel very reluctant to step out of their comforts zones.
One of the biggest regrets in life a lot of people tend to deal with in the future is knowing somewhere in their hearts that they could have done better.
The thoughts of doing below your own capability isn’t really one of the nicest feeling to experience especially when things didn’t come out as you would have wanted them to be.
One of the reasons we tend to avoid change and growth is the fear of the unknown, that is the “what ifs”.
Irrespective of how much we may dread changes in our lives, one of the major things you will regret not doing in life is outgrowing your negative habits and building up positive ones.
Give yourself the opportunity not to dwell in self-blame in the next 10 years, and also to boldly look back and be proud of all the choices you made in the past.
Don’t stay too long in a toxic relationship or job. Learn to outgrow your negative habit. Majorly have an open mind towards unlearning and relearning.
3. Being lazy and careless
An action which undeniably hardly promotes any positive impact in anyone’s life is living a careless and lazy lifestyle.
Even though most people are of the believe that we shouldn’t take life too seriously, a lot of people tend to mistake this for being careless and tend to face their daily activities without much zeal.
Trust me, at some point in time, we might have all experienced feeling less enthusiastic about accomplishing a new goal.
However, consistently making laziness and carelessness a part of our life is one of the biggest regrets in life one can get trapped in if encouraged.
There are times when I sit to reflect on some of the decisions I made some years back especially when taking some self-development courses online.
During those times, I recalled how difficult it was to stay consistent and also prioritize these duties.
This was due to my extremely busy routines, and on some other occasions, I just intentionally lazed around.
Looking back at the past, I regret my life choices of making fear and laziness define how much I could definitely accomplish.
Give yourself the opportunity to constantly challenge your ability. Sometimes, we can do more than we imagine, make sure you are able to differentiate between unwinding and just staying idle.
It’s also important to get an accountability partner who can always help you stay on track.
4. Not pursuing your passion
Looking at all the demands and pressure from our present society, a lot people’s major pursuits and career goals are solely based on how much their earnings is, how perfect their lives seem or how they are able to attract others to appreciate them.
I have met several professionals who work 9-5 and also earn well but don’t always look forward to resuming work every day because they find it very difficult to derive the pleasure they seek from their jobs.
One of the biggest regrets in life you would ever experience is looking back at the career choices you made and realizing your reasons for pursuing a certain goal was because of some validations you were seeking from others.
Be true to yourself, understand and ask yourself if what you are presently doing will still give you that fulfillment and motivation you need to keep going in the next 10 years.
This helps you avoid dealing with regrets and self-blame later in the future.
5. Wasting time
People sometimes mistake the time for self-care, unwinding and resting as being synonymous to wasting time.
Unwinding is an important part of productivity, however, intentionally doing nothing especially not with the aim of resting or spending meaningful hours on your phone, on social media or TV are those times one could consider as a wasted time.
One of the biggest regrets in life people tend to deal with after few years is knowing they had stunted their own growth due to constantly wasting their time.
Learn how to set priorities. Create daily to-do list and get disciplined. Other times, reward yourself for an accomplished tasks.
Doing these helps you in avoiding lazing around and whiling away the time.
6. Encouraging toxic relationships
Staying too long in an unhealthy relationship can end up leaving you feeling traumatized, losing your self-worth and self-esteem.
Another biggest regret in life you don’t want to experience is staying in an abusive or violent relationship, especially with the hope that things would one day get better.
Now, it’s not that people with toxic habits can’t get better, however, when they aren’t showing any development towards change, then staying in such relationship isn’t the best choice to make.
Don’t deprive yourself the chances of living your life fully. Constantly filter your circle without the fear of losing anyone.
If a person continuously make you go through self-doubt or makes you feel bad about yourself, then what is the need for them staying in your life anyway?
7. Taking your health for granted
If you are thinking of a way to constantly look good and also prepare your body for the future without falling in the trap of regrets, then it’s important you prioritize your health today.
Asides from taking good care of your health helps you keep fit, look good and healthy, it’s also a way when working on how to look rich effortlessly.
The biggest regrets in life is knowing that you didn’t take control of your well-being when you had the chance.
If for example, a person develops a diabetic condition after few years of following an unhealthy diet, then it would not be difficult to find them drowning in self-blame.
Your body is your major priority, and should be cared for. Nourish it with healthy food, exercise and sufficient amount of rest.
When you make this an important part of your life, it will become easier to lead a more meaningful life without having to deal with past regrets.
8. Living your life just to please others
Often times, we place our major focus on the external validations and appreciation we get from people.
We even go as far doing things based on other’s definition of an ideal life and also their own standards.
How would it feel to wake up in the next 10 years and realize every decision you made was to please those around you?
Living to please others will only end up making you feel depressed and unhappy about your life.
Learn to stay true to yourself, live fully and do things that makes you happy. That is one big way to feel well fulfilled in the nearest or distance future.
9. Prioritizing work over family
It took me a long time to realize how much I wasn’t really living.
As a woman who is career oriented, I have always placed more importance to work, even sometimes at the detriment of my own health and also my family’s well-being.
As much as I tried to strike a balance, there is still this unequal division between my work and personal life that sometimes I barely get to have a long meaningful family bonding moments with my kids.
In the end, it finally took a toll on our relationship and family life to realize I made a wrong decision in life.
I went through the hard way of realizing the dangers and consequences that comes with the kind of decisions I made earlier in life.
Give yourself the chance to build healthy memories by creating a work-life balance, and building a meaningful relationship with those you love and value. They should always come first.
10. Not apologizing for your mistakes
One of the actions a lot of us would not like to remember is that we lost a loved one or a meaningful relationship because of our ego and pride.
That is, knowing we failed to acknowledge our mistakes or apologize for the wrongs we did, constantly making justifications for our errors will only create an avenue for keeping grudges which will result into living an unhealthy and unhappy life.
Take some time to revisit your heart and own up for the wrongs you have done. Reflect and apologize when necessary.
This doesn’t only help you amend your relationship with others, it gives you the chance to go into the future with so much peace of mind.
In a nutshell, I know there would be a number of the mentioned regrets we might currently be dealing with in our lives.
Well, it’s time to move on because no matter how much we hold on to this past, we can’t change it.
What matters is learning from our past and paying more attention in building a more fulfilled life and future without having any regret to deal with.