Are you ready to choose a life without regrets?
Posted on July 21, 2016 by Suzy Rosenstein MA, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Life can get complicated and busy. Decades fly by at record speed and you may realize that you aren't where you thought you would be by now.
Frank Sinatra did it right. Remember the lyrics to his famous song, My Way? Wouldn’t it be great to have too few regrets to mention? To live so intentionally, doing everything you really, really wanted to do that you just didn’t have regrets?
Why? Because you did it YOUR way.
The Urban Dictionary defines regret “as feeling often accompanied by sadness, shame, and guilt; regret is when you wish you had done things differently in your past.”
It’s quite common to sail into your 40s and 50s and realize that, if you don’t make some significant changes, you just may have some significant regrets. You usually don’t realize it right away. But as those years wear on, you will likely wake up at some point and think about how fast time is flying by.
And whether or not you’re doing the things you really want to do.
And living the way you really want to live.
And have become the person you want to be.
Midlife transition can surprise you with how stressful a time it can be, especially for working moms.
It’s a phase of our lives where we often recognize that we’ve been on autopilot for a fair bit of time – perhaps a couple of decades – and if we don’t give ourselves a chance to think and re-prioritize, more time will continue to fly by and nothing will have changed.
We really start thinking about if we’re doing what really makes us happy or not. Do we have meaning in our lives? Are we surrounding ourselves with the kind of people we find motivating and intriguing? Are we making a difference in the world?
Well….these thoughts can be overwhelming…and when we’re overwhelmed, our likely response is inaction. And nothing changes.
We have very definite thoughts about these issues. Someone else might think the work that we do is rewarding, but it’s only relevant if YOU think your work is rewarding, for example. Our thoughts about what we’re doing, if we think it has meaning, if we have awesome people in our lives and if we’re making a difference in the world create our feelings. And that’s where regret comes into play.
Regret is a feeling. Feelings are created by thoughts. So if you think you should be doing something else, you may have a regret that you didn’t do it. If you think you don’t have enough meaning if your life, you may regret that you’re not doing something more meaningful. If you think that you’re not making a difference in the world, you may regret that you didn’t do something else that created a definite difference.
Thoughts create feelings.
Thoughts about your life can also be extremely motivating and exciting.
What if you think that you’re ONLY 44 and you still have plenty of time to make a difference?
What if you think you’re 49 and your vast experience has brought you to this time and space so that you are fully equipped and ready to do more meaningful work?
What if you think that at 53, you owe it to yourself to spend some time really figuring out what you want to do with your valuable time on this planet?
What if you decide that decide that at 56, you still have plenty of time to make changes in your life so that you’re happier?
These thoughts produce completely different feelings. When you’re excited, you’re more likely to do something that moves your forward. And you’re much more likely to have an outcome that proves your new thought.
One thing’s for sure…
You can’t change your age, but you CAN change the way you think about your age.
You can also do something to change how much clarity you have about what you really want to do.
My free eGuide, The Dream Igniter (www.suzyrosenstein.com/dreamigniter), is just the thing you need to start thinking…start dreaming…about what changes you can make to ensure you don’t regret how you spent your valuable time. I don’t remember who said this, but it was gold: The world longs for what you have to offer.
It’s so true.
Allow yourself to grow. Give yourself permission to be happy.
Yes, it takes work.
Yes, it’s scary.
But you live once.
You owe it to yourself to allow yourself to think about what you really want. This opportunity is just waiting for you.
Life is short. Let’s get you going!
Note: This article was originally published on Suzy’s Empty Nest Blog.
