15 Things You Should Never Regret In Life

Regret is like old cheese. It was probably a great snack to fill an emotional void, but now it stinks up your apartment and needs to be thrown out. The key to an odorless fridge is digging deep and getting rid of that overripe brie – and just like a key to a happy life is throwing out those regret-demons lurking in the back of your mind.

If you can’t go with that analogy, let’s frame it a different way. If you learn from all of your mistakes, every wrong step is a lesson you can learn. Think of regrets as rungs on the ladder of life. If you don’t make any mistakes, you’ll get stuck at the bottom. No matter which way you look at it, there are a bunch of things we all do that you should never regret. Here are some of them:

Getting Wasted That Night

We’ve all had nights where ‘just one more’ turned into a filthy nap on the tiles of the bathroom floor. Sure, you might feel rough for the next few days and hang your head in shame every time a stranger tries to high five you for some awful stunt you pulled that night – but YOLO – right?

Look, our generation came out of the womb screaming YOLO, yet we forget to live by it. If you hadn’t had one too many that night, you’d have stayed at home, poring over books and wondering what the cool kids were up to.

Saying yes means you’re filled with shame – yes – but at least you have a good story to go with it.

Dating Someone You Shouldn’t Have

It’s incredibly likely that in your mid twenties, you’ll end up hooking up with a terrible, terrible human being. That hook up will lead to a longer-than-was-ever-necessary relationship. It will end in heartbreak and then, even worse, you’ll be hard on yourself for ever letting it go on as it did.

We’ve all done it. Forgive yourself and move on. Any more time spent on this person is a waste. Believe it or not, he/she taught you more about yourself than the ones that didn’t break your heart.

Picking The Wrong Major In College

This isn’t the big deal you think it is. Your major rarely defines who you are. This is a guesstimate, but if you ask around, you’ll find that most of your peers and seniors aren’t working in the field they majored in.

Calling it the ‘wrong’ major is inaccurate. There’s really no such thing. No one cares what your major was. Enjoy the good juicy tidbits it’s added to your cocktail party conversation repertoire and regret nothing.

Making The Wrong Choice About College

Our parent’s generation tend to think that you have to have a college degree to make anything of yourself. Newsflash: they’re completely wrong. Einstein was a drop-out. He did alright. Whether you spend four years slogging through classes with a hangover or not, be proud of your decisions.

If you didn’t go, never fall into the trap of thinking it was a bad choice. Some of the richest entrepreneurs today either quit or didn’t go in the first place. You can always go back later if you really want to.

Fighting With Someone You Love

When you love someone, you know what makes them tick – and they’ll usually know the same about you. So when you get into a fight, tempers flare and you both know what buttons to push.

Arguments happen. Yelling happens. We hurt the ones closest to us the most. Never regret fighting with the people you love – if you don’t fight, you probably weren’t all that close in the first place. Think of a fight as a love pressure-valve. Sometimes you need to let off some steam.

Spending More Than You Should

You probably don’t need the newest smartphone, or to book that trip to Europe. But it would sure as hell be nice.

What will you remember more? That one time you backpacked from Berlin to Budapest, or that time you transferred your money into your savings account?

There’s no point in regretting spending too much money on an experience or an item. If it was truly a mistake, you’ll learn quickly not to make it again.

Making Out With An Ex Partner’s Best Friend

We all do stupid stuff. Sure, this is up there, but there’s no reason to let it turn into a cloud over your head. Making out with an ex’s best friend may sound like a sweet, sweet revenge – but they’re bound to talk. You may even end up on good terms with your ex, and things will get hairy when the truth comes out.

Their reaction will teach you more about them than you probably want to know. It’ll be worth it for that alone. There’s no need to regret your choices when it comes to what you do and with whom. We’re all grown ups here, right?

Quitting Someone You Love

Sometimes, love isn’t enough. Not just romantic love, but love between family and friends too. Life trundles along, no matter how hard we try to stop it.

Change doesn’t mean that love is over. It just means that you’re becoming a different person, and it’s time to say goodbye. It’s better to leave a relationship than to trap both of you inside. It’s OK to quit a good thing.

Taking The Wrong Job

Maybe you didn’t hear, but there’s a recession on. Don’t let the starving artists convince you you’re a sell out because you decided to work for money and not for joy. On the flip side, don’t let the money grubbers make you feel ashamed of pursuing the dead-end, penniless job that fulfills your spirit.

There’s no such thing as the wrong job. We have different needs at different times, and so long as you’re ticking one of those boxes, you’re doing alright.

Turning Up Too Late

Not to class, dummy: we’re talking about showing up too late for the best friend that needs you, or the person you’ve been pursuing finally wants to be with you.

There’s no point in regretting time not spent with your loved ones, or time spent with your eyes glued to your phone. Live for the changes you can make today. Don’t waste time fussing over the way you lived in the past.

Quitting

“Never give up!” “Quitting is for quitters!” “Only losers give up!”

These are ridiculous phrases that we hear all the time. Sometimes, quitting is the best course of action. It could be a person, a job, a career, or a terrible habit. Changing your life helps you learn, keeps you fresh and makes the world a better place. Guess what? Change usually requires quitting something. Don’t regret it.

Getting In Trouble With The Police

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that you should indulge in criminal behavior. We’re not talking about murder here.

At the same time, a bit of bad behavior can be a good thing. Getting in trouble with the law will teach you huge lessons about who you are. Importantly, it can tell you about what you need to change. It’ll scare you straight before you go completely off the rails.

Having The Wrong Attitude

Everyone gets grumpy sometimes. Whether it’s your hormones, the weather, a bad day at the office – we can all get blue. We live in a world that’s obsessed with finding your inner bliss and constantly being happy. Well there’s no happy without some not-so-happy.

It’s not worth regretting a day spent down in the dumps. Sometimes you need to indulge in it to get through it. Then you can get back to ‘chasing your bliss.’

Not Saying You’re Sorry

A lot of the time, ‘sorry’ really does seem to be the hardest word. It’s easy to agonize over all the sorries you haven’t said, even years after that person has fallen out of your life.

In reality, however, even saying sorry may not have changed the situation. Things worked out the way they did for a reason. Stop feeling sorry for yourself for not saying sorry. It’s likely the other party moved on a long time ago.

Being You

We all wake up and freak out about what we’re doing with our lives. Did I pick the right job? Do I have enough money? Do I care about the right things? Do I look the way I want to? Am I who I’m supposed to be?

Sometimes these worries can be constructive. At other times, they can take over our brain-space and bring us to our knees. There’s no need for it. We change constantly and we have incredible powers over our lives. Regretting who we are is dead weight.

You can always be better. Don’t regret who you are today. Get excited for who you’ll be tomorrow. Love yourself.