Building in the Face of Regret

As a leader I believe that one of the things that can stop us in our self-development is the feeling of regret. If you’ve ever made a mistake in your life then you too are familiar with the guilt and shame that can accompany a bad decision, mistake or missed opportunity. One of the things I’ve had to learn is how to deal with regret in a healthy way and that meant I had to change how I saw regret. You see I never realized that regret can be a good thing. How? It helps us to know we have fallen short of our best and makes us aware that we need to do better.
The problem with regret then is that we allow ourselves to become fixated on our shortcomings. This wreaks havoc on our lives because it is counterproductive in that it hinders us from moving forward. In fact research shows that our success depends on our ability to recover quickly from our mistakes. That means we need to recognize the areas in our life where we have allowed regret to block us in mentally, physically or even emotionally.
Here are a few simple tips I've used when I face regret that might be helpful to you:
  • Apologize quickly and emphatically -first to yourself and then to others
  • Get in the practice of forgiving yourself – don’t hold yourself hostage to the mistake
  • Don’t ignore the need for lessons learned-equip yourself to move forward
  • Give regret a time limit – recover from your mistakes

Your truly,

Kizzy Ferrer

2018-2019 President
Greater Orlando Chapter 73