The BIGG Successs Show
Regrets...Had A Few?
We discuss a study by the University of Illinois that reveals our two biggest regrets. What are yours? Listen to the show & read the summary here.
Welcome to our 21st Big Success Show. Today we'll talk about regrets. Have you had a few? The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. Last time we talked about tips for starting over and how to turn misfortune into fortune. And we do have a link to that show on our blog today at BigSuccess.com. And you know recently, Mary Lynn, there was a study done at the University of Illinois. Great institution. And we want to thank our friend and listener Steve for sending us that link. And yes, because you teach at the University of Illinois. Well, and they did a study about regret. And the thing they found was that the number one regret that people have has to do with their education. Yeah, but a third of the participants said education was their biggest. You're not studying hard enough, not finishing school, or regretting their choice of degree. And the next biggest regret, and these two were overwhelmingly the big regrets. The second one had to do with career. Yeah, about a fourth of the participants chose career, regretting choice of career, jobs they accepted, maybe jobs they didn't pursue those kinds of things. You know Mary Lynn, in today's world, we have more choices than ever. That's the good news. The bad news is this. More choices leads to more regret. That's a smorgasbord of regret. And specifically, there's two kinds of regrets that we want to talk about. There's action regrets and inaction regrets. So let's start with the action regrets. Action regrets are what they say. You know, I did something and I'm not happy with myself for it. And you know, for the most part, and the study says this, you know, the little daily things, we can get past those pretty fast. I think the ones that are the most challenging to get past are, you know, when I've done something that's out of character, I have trouble sometimes getting past that. But the thing is, you know, you've got to get past it. You've got to find a way to move on. Right. You can't keep beating yourself up over it. What are you going to do? You've got to learn from the mistake and then change your behavior accordingly. Right. Now the good news is these regrets of an action are easier to get past than regrets of inaction. Right. These are the tough ones because the imagination kicks in. Right. And specifically, the study shows that the bigger the opportunity that we feel we missed, the harder it is that the more we regret it, you know, and if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. When there's that one thing that you think, if I had just done that prime example, we had lunch with a friend not too long ago who is an inventor of sorts. And he had an idea long ago, didn't really pursue it. And it became a product. Right. Yeah. And you hear that one quite a bit. Right. I thought of that and then I saw it advertised in an infomercial the other night or something like that. But the thing is, it's just it's not productive to sit around thinking about what you could have done. Where we add value to our lives is when we project, we imagine what might be, not what could have been. And so here's what we advise when you're driving down the big success highway, make a U-turn. Take action. Do something about it. Right. You can't just sit around and say, what if? What if? Here's a great example. Nola Oakes. She graduated May 12th of this year. Nola is 95 years old. Wow. According to again, as she is the oldest person to finish college, she graduated from Fort Hay State University. She started 77 years ago. Now that's a long college career. Didn't finish the degree, had regrets about that. And instead of living with regret, she decided to do something about it. Like you just said, she took action, went back to school, and now she's got her degree. And I love that story. And we congratulate her. So let's review what we talked about today. Today, we talked about the two kinds of regrets. The regret of an act that we're not happy with, or the regret of not acting, and now not being happy with it. And we said, the regrets of acting are easier to get over, but you do got to learn from them and move on. And if you regret not acting on something, take a U-turn, live in the future, not the past. Take action now. And you can get a written summary of today's show on our blog at BigSuccess.com. We also have a link to the complete study that was done at the University of Illinois about regrets. And let's get our big quote for the day. Our quote today comes from Alexander Graham Bell. And he said, "Can you hear me now?" Oh, that's the wrong network, isn't it? I'm sorry. Did they have people following him everywhere? He did. But they all were attached with my strength. So anyway, Alexander Graham Bell said, "When one door closes, another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us." So walk through your open doors and you may just find room for improvement. Next show, Marylin. We're going to talk about 20 something. All right. Now I kind of remember 20 something. So we're done. Yes. But 20 something's are getting a bad rap today. Or at least they're getting a rap. We're going to talk about is it a bad rap? Or is it just a generation gap? And until then, here's to your Big Success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]