Do you often feel a sense of regret after taking certain actions or making certain decisions?

"The input of new information and experience often creates in us a sense of regret that we should have acted or decided otherwise." ... Jonathan Ooi

In life and at work, we take many actions and make many decisions. But, somehow, there is always a sense of regret that comes on, after we have taken those actions or made those decisions. We usually feel that we should not have done certain things and regret that we have not done otherwise; similarly, we often regret over those decisions we made, for example, we feel that we have ordered the wrong dish, bought the wrong phone, got into the wrong job and perhaps married the wrong wife or husband. What is in your mind now? Are you thinking of some of those decisions you have made? You are not alone.

This is the result of the input of new information and gaining of new experience as time goes on. We tend to evaluate our previous decisions against new and current information and experience, and obviously, many things have changed along the way and in the process. So, the previous decision appears to be less satisfactory now.

But, we have to recognise that certain decisions are fixed and are long-term commitment whereas some others are variable and dynamic. It is not that easy to change or alter the decisions in the first category as it involves breaking the commitment, e.g marriage; whereas the second category could allow for some changes as time goes on, such as changing the brand of shampoo, avoiding a certain dish that did not taste good etc.

Therefore, we have to learn to be more careful when making decisions of the first category so that we do not end up regretting for life. The second case poses only a temporary sense of regret which would go away after a while.