How do we live a life with no regrets?

Do we try to live a life free of mistakes? Impossible. We will make them. No question. To err is human and all that.  

I think it has to do with giving 100% to whatever you do. Those times when I know I’ve truly done that are some of my best moments in my life. Even if things don’t turn out just as you hoped at least you know did all you could.  Maybe you are testing for the next level. Rather than focusing on that next promotion in whatever discipline of martial arts you practice, what if your only thought was to go full out? Then you know, at the end as you sit there sweaty and exhausted you did what you could. The rest won’t matter so much.  Even if you don’t pass…what more could you have done? 

Yet people tend to get complacent. Seems it is just human nature to take the people and things in our lives that are seemingly constant and take them for granted. It takes awareness and self discpline not to just go through our days like little robots. Always expecting to get a second chance at it all the next day.

I remember when my father died after being diagnosed with cancer only 2 weeks before. I looked back at my time with him and thought…I am so glad that he knew just how much I loved him.  By the same token, I knew how much he loved me. I remember him saying to me towards the end “I should have told you I loved you more often.” I said “Dad, you told me everyday - you just didn’t always use words.”  I knew the same was true of me - I may not have said it all the time but I showed it in many ways. I had no regrets on that one - I appreciated him while he was alive and was not plagued with “I should haves”. And that was something that got me through a very difficult time.

So what is the cure for regret? What is the antedote? Just go all out each and every day. Appreciate the people in your life.  Show them you love them. Smile at strangers in the elevators and make their day a little nicer fo having passed through with you even for a few moments.

Look around you. Notice things, feel them, listen to them, taste them and embrace them. It is all we can do. We can’t go back and change what has already happened and we can’t control what is going to happen so we might as well get all we can out of this very moment. 

And one day, we hopefully we will look back and say whatever happened…I truly lived.  No regrets.