People Are Sharing Their Worst Decisions In Their Long Lives And Here Are 30 Of Them

"One of the best ways to feel confident about a decision is to get clear in advance about what we really want and need. Sometimes we get swept up in the excitement of an opportunity, or overwhelmed with an avalanche of info and data, and it's easy to lose sight of our actual goals and vision," Wellman, the founder of Four Thousand Mondays, told Bored Panda via email.

"Get anchored in what makes you happy. Sit down and write about what you'd like your next 5 years to look like." She urged everyone to get in touch with their values, namely, the things that matter the most to you in life. These can be anything, from family and health to achievement, financial security, accuracy, creativity, and beyond.

"It's hard to make a bad decision if it aligns with our values, vision, and dreams," Wellman said.

"Psychologist Barry Schwartz talks about the benefit of 'satisficing' when we make decisions—making a good decision with thought and care, but not necessarily after going through the most exhaustive research process. You might spend 15 hours researching the best hotel options for a trip (trying to 'maximize' your vacation), but you could have 'satisficed' after researching for an hour and then had just as great of a time on your holiday."

That being said, there are no such things as 'great decision guarantees.' "So it might be helpful to pre-acknowledge that you're doing your best with the information you have available at the time, and not every decision will be a winner. We're allowed a lot of gimmes in this life, thankfully."

Bored Panda also asked Wellman what advice she'd give an older person who might feel guilty about not having taken full advantage of their youth. "The most insightful research on regrets reveals that our 'paths not taken' can haunt us as we age—the regrets of omission, the 'coulda shoulda wouldas.' The regrets of commission—the things we did and wished we hadn't—don't tend to bother us as much," she said.

"A helpful exercise can be the deathbed regret visualization. If you were on death's door, what 'paths not taken' would make you feel pangs of regret? I call those 'pre-grets' because they aren't regrets yet... we can still course-correct them. It's not too late to learn how to speak French... to go back to school... to become a painter... to travel to the Galapagos... the list goes on. Get in touch with regrets in the making and take one action to prevent it."

If you're curious about how many more Monday mornings you have left, feel free to use the calculator on the Four Thousand Mondays website. It might give you the motivation you need to make the most of life.

Broadly speaking, there are a few things that are always a good idea to focus on no matter what age you are. They’re things that most of us wish we had given more attention to earlier, but like they say, though the best time to start was yesterday, the second best time is today. You will never regret prioritizing your physical and mental health, as well as the meaningful relationships with your loved ones.

Sleep more, drink more water, eat more nutritious food, spend time with people you like, be out in nature, and get more exercise. Meanwhile, stay away from alcohol, nicotine, processed foods, and extremely negative people who constantly stress you out—you know the drill by now.

It’s also a good idea to think about your retirement as early as you can. A part of this means learning to balance your budget so you consistently earn more, spend less, save more, and have more freedom to invest your hard-earned cash. This doesn’t mean just cutting back on your expenses but also finding ways to earn more money without exhausting yourself or impacting your relationships. That might mean applying to better jobs or picking up a small side hustle.

No matter how smart, strategic, efficient, and careful you are, you will—inevitably!—make mistakes in life. There’s just no getting around this fact. How you react to failure, however, can tell everyone a lot about you, like your character, values, resilience, and general outlook on life.

It’s natural to be upset when something doesn’t work out the way you expected it would, but if you fall apart at the smallest inconveniences, you’ll have a hard time going through life. On the flip side, embracing unfavorable outcomes and circumstances can put you at an advantage. When you see failure as a learning opportunity and a way to prepare better for future challenges, you (potentially) end up stronger in the end.

Not getting that one dream job that you spent weeks or months applying to might eventually lead to better opportunities with an awesome workplace culture and higher wages. The end of one romantic relationship can create space for you to get more in tune with your wants, needs, and boundaries. And even if you mess up that all-important presentation at college or your office, that might just be the push you need to sign up for a public speaking course to gain more confidence. In many cases, there’s a silver lining.

However, some experiences are going to be devastating no matter how resilient you think you are. In those cases, you should try to rely on your social support network more and seek a mental health expert’s help to understand what happened and, hopefully, reframe it in a way that empowers you. It’s never a sign of weakness to ask for help, but nobody’s a mind-reader, so you really do need to speak up when you need a hand.

What are some of the biggest regrets that you have in life, dear Pandas? Have you learned to embrace those decisions or do they still haunt you? On the flip side, what are the decisions you’ve made that you’re immeasurably proud of to this day? What do you think is the secret to making better life decisions? We’d love to hear from you! You can share your experiences in the comments below.