When I was younger, I loved the song by Edith Piaf — “Non, je ne regrette rien” Edith Piaf had been through so much in her life, starting out as the child of a prostitute, raised on the streets of Paris, growing up to be an amazing singer, but she had multiple health issues and much pain. That little 4 foot 11" her could sing so proudly that she regretted nothing, well it was inspiring. But is it real? Can we ever have no regrets?
I did a short piece earlier on Medium and talked a little about Edith here:
Of course not! Only psychopaths have no regrets! (Well they may regret the times their nefarious schemes didn’t work, but that’s another article…).
Remember, regrets exist for a reason, they remind us that we could have done better than we did. We feel bad about something we did or didn’t do because we have a conscience. Most of us want to do the right thing by someone. But we are all human and sometimes we don’t.
While you can’t get rid of regrets (they are like memories, after all, part of you), you decide how loud they get…
