Overcoming Career Regrets Helps Workers To Remain Happy

A recent survey showed that nearly one third of all American workers had substantial regrets concerning one or more career choices. Regrets can be very powerful, crippling future decision making capabilities, and hindering progress. Fortunately, overcoming regret is as simple as developing a more positive outlook as well as re-examining choices more closely.

First, it is important to make sure that you’re not caught in a web of misery. For example, one of the common regrets is that workers often take higher paying jobs that are less enjoyable. Because of this, they end working more hours or in a less hospitable atmosphere than their previous job. Experts agree that once you find yourself in a bad situation, you should extract yourself from it immediately. So if you have made a mistake, make sure that you’re currently not punishing yourself for it by staying in place. Instead, do whatever is necessary to move on, including quitting, if it will help you to live a more fulfilling life. After all, life is too short to be constantly unhappy.

Secondly, one should consider re-examining the regret altogether. The reason for this is simple: some regrets are simply not as catastrophic as others. Furthermore, regardless of how successful a person may be, it is normal for all workers to have some kind of regret. So taking a closer look at these regrets will often help you to determine if they’re worth fretting over or not. In fact, it is usually just a matter of gaining a better perspective on things.

While a decision at a certain period of time may have been wrong or resulted in a less than favorable outcome, many of these same decisions will work themselves out for the better in the long run. For example, you may have gained the necessary experience from such an ordeal to later get a promotion. Or maybe working a job that you enjoy less than your previous one has put you on the path to early retirement. As the old saying goes, there are those who see the glass as half empty and those who see it as half full. Always take the latter perspective when possible.

Ultimately, the best way to cope with career regrets is to appreciate what all you’ve accomplished. Taking a long look at all that you’ve done will usually reveal many things to be proud of, which outweigh all possible regrets. For example, perhaps you weren’t as aggressive in your career as you should’ve been. But because you chose a more passive approach, you were better able to spend quality time with your children growing up. In this situation, you can appreciate that fact. Remember that life is about all about tradeoffs. Nobody gets everything they want. Finding a silver lining will help you to remain happy with your choices.