You Can Learn A Lot From Other People’s Regrets

So you don’t make the same mistakes as them.

Photo by Some Tale on Unsplash

We spend a lot of time making mistakes. We often do or say something wrong and then spend the rest of the day apologizing and doing whatever it takes to rectify the situation.

It happens to all of us. We want everyone to see us in a positive light. We want to be remembered as someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and trustworthy. So naturally, we spend a lot of time trying to fix everything that’s broken.

But maybe that’s the wrong strategy. Because whether you like it or not, we have a limited amount of time on this earth. And if you’re anything like me, you don’t want to spend it arguing with loved ones. Therefore, it certainly makes sense to learn from other people’s regrets, so you don’t make the same mistakes as them.

The single best piece of advice I’ve been given is to live as if you’re going to die tomorrow. Now, that doesn’t mean quitting your job and flying to Hawaii. Instead, it means to stop spending time on things that don’t really matter, so you can focus all of your energy on the things that do. Like Marcus Aurelius once wrote:

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”