by Gaurav Mahendru

Created on: May 27, 2009   Last Updated: May 31, 2009

What are regrets? Lets us take a few examples to understand regrets.

A person sets a modest target of getting a better paying job by the end of the year. However recession sets in and the person is not able to get a better job. At the end of that year the person says I regret that I could not achieve the target I had set for myself.

A person has a dream of becoming a singer. The person tries his/her level best, taking classes in the evening while doing his/her best on the job front. After completing the training the person auditions a couple of times and does not make it. The feedback is that his/her voice is not suited for singing.

A person loses a large sum in gambling and ends up indulging in antisocial behavior leading to a fine and a mild prison sentence. The person regrets that he went gambling that day and he believes that that is what ruined everything for him.

A person is walking down the street when he is run over by a truck and loses a limb in the accident. All his life he regrets that fateful day when he lost his leg and it changed his life forever.

These are just some broad outlines. If you look closely you will see a pattern everywhere. We all have dreams and ambitions. We all set goals and objectives for ourselves. We have expectations from other people too. When we are unable to fulfil our dreams or aspirations we feel sad and think if only we had tried harder or if only things had not been so bad we may have managed to get what we wanted and it would have been so much better.

Apart from our own expectations, dreams, goals, aspirations etc, sometimes things happen which drastically change the way we look at life, they completely take us by surprise and put us in a situation which we are completely unprepared for and which is beyond our wildest imagination. Anything that we are not prepared for also leaves us fuming at the unjust turn of events which forces us to rethink our whole life.

I am sure each one of us can think of at least a dozen situations where things have not gone as per plan or something unexpected has completely turned our world upside down. We have all had failures, heartbreaks, loss of near and dear ones, unfulfilled dreams and unrealized ambitions. We can blame it on fate, government, our family, the society, the politicians, god or anybody for that matter. The fact remains that every single person in the world has regrets. Seriously, a man living in Africa, a woman living in India, family in Iraq, children in Russia, you prod and probe any fellow human anywhere in the world and out comes a few stories. The older the person the more stories you will get.

There is not a single person who has never faced hardship or failed at something or could not come up to expectations of their family or teachers or their colleagues at work or their wife or children. The only thing that we can do is to pick up the pieces and move on because as long as you are living your life you are bound to have failures, disappointments and losses. It is important to understand that this is perfectly alright as we cannot always have everything.

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