This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for more info
As the popular saying goes, “Time waits for no one”. One moment you are celebrating your 20th birthday, filled with the joy of finally becoming a full blown adult and the next minute you realize how fast the clock is ticking, you are almost 40, unhappy and filled with regret. You can’t even proudly account for what you spent over 30 years of your life on earth doing.
As humans we are filled with regrets at one point of our life or another, we think of what we did but shouldn’t have done or what we should have done but didn’t do. Neither of these regrets are good because they only make you have negative thoughts towards yourself and beat yourself up.
In order to avoid the regret of what you should have done but didn’t do, here’s a list of 15 things you’ll regret not doing sooner. It’s now or never!
Psst – Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest for all your self growth, personal development and relationship tips! It will only take a second of your time!
1. Summoning the courage to start now
So many of us have a long list of things we want to get accomplished before a certain time but the best we ever do is talk about how much we want to carry out these plans and the steps we would follow to carry them out, but we never actually do them.
Most of the time, we just can’t summon enough courage to start because we are afraid of failure, rejection or criticism, but as C. Joybell. C, said, “Don’t be afraid of your fears, they are not there to scare you. They are there to let you know that something is worth it.”
Get up now and start writing that book, start that YouTube channel, start your own business, send that C.V, take that new course and a few years down the line, you would be surprised at how much you have accomplished.
2. Letting go of the past
Sometimes we just can’t take our minds off certain things that happened to us in the past, we think about it and even let it influence our present and future decisions but in the words of Steve Maraboli, “The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward”.
Thinking about the past and having regrets would only block your view of the future, you need to forgive yourself today, forgive that person who hurt you so much, stand back up and keep moving forward.
3. Being true to yourself and others
In a bid to please our family and friends, we conform to the idea of who they expect us to be and not who we really are.
You then lose sight of who you really are and this becomes very harmful because you begin to let yourself believe things that are not true about you and begin to feel like you are not enough or not doing enough.
Jaeda DeWalt said, “Don’t let others box you into their idea of what they think you should be. A confined identity is a miserable way to exist. Be you and live free. Trust that in living true to yourself, you will attract people that support and love you, just as you are.”
Now I know you may be thinking, why so many quotes? Well the truth is, we can draw a great deal of wisdom from wise people! You don’t have to go through life alone, learn from others who have been through what you may be going through.
Until you find out who you truly are and choose to be true to yourself, you can’t love yourself and if you don’t love yourself, how do you expect to be loved by other people?
It’s better to show people who you truly are, instead of them finding out that you actually loved John Cena all along or you actually hate listening to Nasty C!
Be true to yourself and constantly work on being a better version of you.
4. Showing love and care to those who matter to you
Often, we get caught up with our day to day life, trying to make ends meet and accomplish our goals that we forget to check up on those who mean the most to us.
When these people go to the world beyond, we begin to regret and blame ourselves for not showing how much we cared about them when they were with us.
No matter how busy you are, you need to create time to be with your family and friends because the memories that you all shared together are what will remain with you forever.
So, call them today to check up on them, take out time to go and see them or stay with them, tell them and show how much you love and care about them. It’s not as difficult as you think!
5. Putting yourself first
One fact about life is that you can’t give what you don’t have; if you don’t love yourself, there is no way in the world you can love someone else, which is why you need to put yourself first in whatever you want to do.
In the end, you are the only one who will always remain with yourself. Family, friends, parents, spouse, and even your children can leave you at any time, either intentionally or otherwise.
Take time to be with yourself and have a deep understanding of who you are.
6. Learning to say no to negativity
Sometimes we have negative thoughts about ourselves and we let these thoughts control us, but we need to learn how to say a firm no to such thoughts and focus on the positive.
We even allow people to say negative things to us and these things start to manifest into reality because we have made ourselves believe these negative things. You need to stand up today and say no to any form of negativity around you.
Turn your problems into challenges and work on overcoming them, celebrate your wins no matter how small they seem, learn from your failure, smile more and be happy!
7. Letting go of being ruled by fear
We all have fears, it’s one of the things that makes us human, in fact fear can be helpful sometimes because it keeps us away from harm.
But the worst thing a person could ever do to him or herself is to allow fear to rule their life and act as a barrier against anything and everything they set out to do. You need to learn how to handle and overcome fear in order to truly live your life to the fullest.
In fact, fear has been said to mean:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
(Pretty cool, right? You’re welcome.)
8. Being conscious of your health
Mahatma Gandhi said, “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver”.
We often neglect our health in the pursuit of silver and gold, but when we finally have all these things, our health would have deteriorated and we can’t even live well and long enough to enjoy all that we suffered to build and acquire. Sad isn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be that way!
Go to the hospital for a checkup today, stop self-medicating, eat a balanced diet, drink lots of water, eat fruits and vegetables, cut down on junk food, sleep well and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Also get some good, tender loving care once in a while! (double wink)
9. Pursuing your goals and passion
We all have one or two things we are very passionate about but we don’t get to do these things due to some factors like fear, lack of funds, etc. But look at what Mark twain said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade wind in the sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”.
While pursuing your goals and passions, you will definitely encounter some difficulties but you have to keep forging ahead regardless. Look for a way to turn what you love doing into a source of income for you, live your dreams and stay happy. I know YOLO is so outdated but seriously fam, YOLO!
10. Letting yourself love and be loved
At one point in adulthood, the average human being would encounter heartbreak in a relationship and that’s absolutely fine because most people don’t get it right at the first…or tenth try.
The only thing you should constantly do is to learn from the mistakes of your past relationship. Don’t let your terrible past experiences make you give up on allowing yourself to love or be loved. The best thing you can do for yourself is to let go of your grief, get back into the world and let yourself love and be loved again. You might just get it right this time around.
11. Standing up for yourself and not settling for less
People are bound to take advantage of you if you don’t stand up for yourself and keep your head up high.
Now, hold up fam, this doesn’t mean you should be rude, but you need to make people understand what you want and don’t want, you need to uphold your values and beliefs without necessarily harming anyone in the process.
Do not settle for less; ask your boss for that raise (even if she’ll probably say no because she’s simply evil), or end that abusive relationship today, you deserve more and you deserve better so don’t settle for anything less.
12. Having fun and pampering yourself
When last did you give yourself a nice treat? When last did you visit a fun place or take a vacation? Heck, when last did you take a long, well-deserved bubble bath, just like in the movies?
Yes, life can be stress filled, but that is why you need to cut yourself some slack and have fun. Watch a movie you love, visit a place you have always wanted to visit, go to the spa, go clubbing if you love it, just do something fun and pamper yourself.
You don’t want to look back 40 years down the line and wish you treated yourself better.
13. Letting go of toxic friends
You won’t always have friends who truly care about you and want the best for you. Some of them would smile at your face and stab you in the back (some may even stab you in the front!), but your duty is to fish out the foes in the form of friends in your life and let go of them.
The process of letting go can be likened to turning your excess baggage into garbage, so that you can create more space in your life. Toxic friends are excess baggage, please do the right thing by disposing of them. In Mandy Hale’s words, “Toxic people will pollute everything around them. Don’t hesitate to fumigate”.
14. Taking your financial life more seriously
Money money money mahhhhh-nay (this is me trying to bring the soundtrack of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice back to your memory, did it work?).
Money is an important aspect of living and the earlier you start to take that aspect of your life more seriously, the better it will be for you.
Learn high income skills, find different ways to earn legit income, get adequate financial literacy, have more than one stream of income, learn to save, make profitable investments and get insurance. In the end it’s not about how much you earn but how you make use of what you earn.
On a conclusive note, your attitude towards the present will determine the fate of the future. Get up now and do what has to be done as soon as possible before it gets too late.
There is almost nothing as painful as regret because you can’t just make a time machine and go back in time. The time is now.
Also check out some of these posts:
- 25 Easy ways to beat the Monday blues and love your work again
- 15 Things you need to add to your morning routine for a productive day
- 10 Things to do every Sunday for a productive week
PS – Don’t forget to pin this post of 14 things you will regret not doing sooner!
If you read till the end, I’m glad you did! I hope these points will give you something to think about and bring some positive change in your life! I don’t want you to don’t end up with any regrets!
If you would be so kind, please take a second to pin this post to your personal development board on Pinterest. It would mean so much to me! Thank you!
