No Regrets

She was timeless, and full of wisdom, compassion, and understanding. Her caring eyes could make you feel at peace.

She was my husband’s Grandma Rose, and I am sure you can understand when I say I wish I would have squeezed in more time with her. Especially as my children are getting older, it would be nice to call her up and tap into her insight. She raised three children of her own, and her perspective always seemed to be grounded in the truly important things in life, those things that we wish we had more time for.

We all have regrets—family members we wish we could visit more, educational goals we wish we would have accomplished, even health goals that always get placed on the back burner when life steps in and steps up our responsibilities.

It’s difficult to balance it all. It seems that just as we focus on one area of our life, another area starts to feel neglected and in need of repair. The immediate grabs our attention and somewhere in between, those regrets slowly form. The woulda, coulda, shoulda, and “I wish” thoughts begin to seep in.

Maybe as humans we are just wired to reflect on the things we wish we would have done, or to think about all the things we could have or should have done. This thought pattern seems to accompany us whenever we don’t like where we are headed or where we feel we have ended up.

I have found myself there on a few occasions, and I can tell you it is not a productive place to be.

I prefer to focus on where I want to go. And that always requires a plan—a forward-focused plan that anticipates the many successes and failures along my way in the hope of ultimately obtaining a fraction of Grandma Rose’s character.

Grandma was about hard work and values. She was also about lending a hand, your heart, or whatever you could to help someone else. She didn’t seem bothered by the busyness of life, but focused on what she found important, which was almost always the people she cared about.

When Grandma spoke about life and the things she had experienced, she never seemed to have regrets. She was at peace with who she was and whatever life had handed her. That is where I ultimately want to be. And that requires making choices I feel confident about, then moving forward from them with no regrets.

What has helped you to live a life of no regrets? Please share your comments below.