However, there are some regrets that can stay with you until you are dying. Many, many people have these regrets. But the good news is, you can start taking care of them today.

1. Caring too much what people think

It’s an absolute given that, no matter how many different ways you stand on your head, you’re going to let people down, make them mad, or break their heart. If you’re going to upset people sooner or later anyway, you might as well upset them while doing something you love.

2. Staying in a bad relationship

If you are miserable in a relationship, you can’t offer your partner what he or she deserves, which is your best. Let him or her go so he or she can find happiness, and let yourself go so you can find your own.

3. Holding grudges

“Holding” is a verb – an action. It takes effort to hold a grudge. If a grudge were a great big rock, you would be waking up every morning, picking the darn thing up, and carrying it around with you all day. What good is that doing you? Are you trying to punish the person who wronged you by depriving him or her of your company? That’s silly – what if he or she doesn’t even like you? Just put the rock down; it’ll make moving forward much easier.

4. Not taking risks

Yeah, you could fall on your face and make a total ass of yourself. Your business might go belly-up, or your “friends” might laugh at you. But you’ll survive. In the meantime, you’ll learn a hell of a lot… and the next time you take a risk, it won’t be nearly as scary.

5. Staying in a bad job

In 10 or 20 years, will you be more likely to remember all the bills you kept paid by staying in this job, or will you remember how utterly and completely miserable you were?

6. Spending too much money on “golden shackles”

Buying that fancy car or nice house feels really good at first… until the mortgage payments and repair bills kick in. Those costs stick around a long, long time after the newness and fun has worn off – and can keep you locked into that bad job.

7. Not taking care of your health

By the time you go to the doctor and get that prescription, it’s too late. Take care of your health up front by eating healthy food, exercising regularly, and getting enough rest. It won’t cost you anything except a little effort – and it’ll save you a ton in medical bills, which can also keep you locked in that bad job.

8. Not finishing what you started

One of the saddest things in the world is a musical instrument that sits on a garage shelf collecting dust while waiting for “someday” to come. Turn “someday” into “now.” In five years, you will have fulfilled a dream. If you don’t, those five years will have passed anyway.

9. Not telling your loved ones you love them

Even the act of taking a few seconds to text or phone someone with “I love you” puts you in a place of appreciating them, and it brightens his or her day, too.

10. Not choosing to be happier

Are you really going to let the things going on in Washington or that rotten person at work keep you from being happy? Well, okay. It’s your choice. But if you’re waiting around for the world to be perfect before you can get happy, you’re going to be waiting a long, long time.

11. Not sticking up for yourself

You are a child of God, and God doesn’t make garbage. If you think you’re garbage, you’re insulting God, and if someone else thinks you’re garbage, THEY’RE insulting God. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

A final thought:

Whether you’re in your 20’s or your 80’s, it is never too late to start making choices that will free you and make your life bragworthy. Featured photo credit: Regret / Neil Moralee via flickr.com