- Juliana Leondis
Regret- We all experience it
Regret can be all-consuming – a neurobehavioral scientist explains how people can overcome it
Regret has the ability to fully control a person. A story of a man who worked at IBM in the 90s exemplifies this well. He was offered a job to work for a small, new organization that mostly paid in company shares. The man turned down the offer and stayed with his current job. The company he turned down was Microsoft.
Regret can be experienced in two seperate ways according to the article, with action or with inaction. Meaning we either regret the things that we did do or the things that we did not do. The regret that stems from action is more than likely the situations where people will learn from their mistakes. The best way to learn from mistakes that have caused regret is to allow yourself to feel the feelings that you have. Once you have accepted that you made a mistake, you then are able to learn from it and see where you went wrong.
The key to understanding, learning from and moving past regret is to simply acknowledge it. By acknowledging your feelings you have the ability to control them on your own terms. You can accept the facts and forgive yourself for any mis-steps. From here moving forward is much easier. Take a moment to think about what you have learned from the regrettable experience. Once you have taken something away from the experience, suddenly there is a positive outcome and no longer a need for regret.
If this is something that you or someone you love needs assistance with, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at BocaBehavioralHealth.com.