The key and the secret to living a happy and content life is to live it without any regrets. The more you regret, the more stay stuck in the past. If you want to live your life without regrets, then you have to really and truly understand what you need to do to achieve that goal. And not just temporarily.
With each chapter, you close in your life, comes the end of an old and the beginning of a new. These chapters are what we call cycles. If you are in tune with these cycles, you can feel the shift coming. They normally come in 7-year intervals, meaning that at age 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 (etc) you will have completed 6 cycles.
Each cycle ends with both positive and negative attributes, as well as hard lessons and immense growth. Upon each ending, you will notice the energies amping up. Everything around you may shift dramatically at the close of a volatile cycle, or fizzle out smoothly depending on which milestone you have accomplished.
Take a moment, look back on your life and try to remember the major events that surrounded these age markers, and notice these major milestones. Can you see the pattern? Once you do, you can prepare yourself for the next transition.
Each cycle ends with a period of reflection. This is where the should have, could have, and would haves come up. And to ensure that you reach your final cycle with a clear conscience, here are 50 Ways to Live Life Without Regrets.
50 Ways to Live Life Without Regrets.
50. Speak Your Mind
Your thoughts are important, don’t undervalue yourself.
49. Be Yourself
You can only be you, don’t become a second-rate version of someone else.
48. Be Bold
What would you do if you knew for 100% certainty, that you wouldn’t fail?
Do that.
47. Admit When You Are Wrong
Have the courage to admit when you are wrong. It will gain you respect, and will allow you to become a strong leader.
46. Make Your Own Path
Don’t follow the trail, break free. Find your own path and leave footprints for someone else.
45. Find the Humor in life
Finding humor during the most serious of situations helps you to find non-attachment. The true nature of the universe is playful, not serious. Strive to find the lighter side of every dark situation.
44. Be thankful
True prayer, is not asking for what we want the desires of the heart, but accepting all of life’s blessing and showing gratitude for everything in return. A cycle of love that continues to grow.
Related: 50+ Marilyn Monroe Quotes To Fall In Love With Life Again
43. Be Courageous
If you don’t take risks somewhere in life, you will end up not accomplishing much of anything. The impossible can always be broken down into possibilities.
42. Be Vulnerable
Being vulnerable doesn’t mean being weak. Be willing to express your feelings.
41. Be Honest
It not just about being honest with others, it’s more about being honest with ourselves. If we aren’t being true to ourselves, we suffer. Always live true to your heart.
40. Think for Yourself
Throughout your life, you have been told how others think things should be done. The way they have been done and should still be done. But each of us thinks differently, uniquely, so be unique. The way you view the world is different from every other person on the planet. So think for yourself, your piece to the puzzle may just be the one that solves the riddle.
39. Find Your Passion
What is it that really gets that fire burning in your heart? What makes you tick? Grab a pen and a piece of paper, write down all of your interests since you were young. Favorite books, movies, sports, anything. Spend some time alone and rediscover yourself, find what makes you tick, and take action.
“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman
38. Do What You Love
If money were no object, what would you like to do? How would you really enjoy spending your life? If you think that getting money is the most important thing you will spend your life completely wasting your time.
If you truly like what you do, eventually you will master it and at some point, you will make money from it. Do what you love first, the money will follow.
37. Face Your Fears
When you let fear interfere with your life, you end up sitting on the sidelines. The only way to overcome fear is to face it. When you face your fears you realize that what your mind built up, wasn’t anything close to the reality of the situation.
Take a breath, count to three and do it.
36. Accept and Embrace Yourself
By exploring yourself, you find your innermost beliefs, values, ideas, and emotions. This gives us an understanding of how we carry ourselves in everyday life. You gain a better idea of understanding why you behave a certain way and once you understand yourself, you can accept and embrace all aspects of your being.
Embracing yourself means accepting your strengths and weaknesses, your dark and light, yin, and yang polarities. Without acceptance, you can’t flourish.
35. Don’t Hold Onto Anger
When you hold anger, you will get burned. You may think that your anger to punish another, but you are only punishing yourself.
34. Change Your Perspective
When situations arise you may immediately feel emotions arising, whether you feel slighted, agitated, or downright annoyed. Look for a new angle. By putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, you’ll be able to see it from a different view-point.
33. End Hurtful Relationships
Life is too short to stick around somewhere you are unhappy. If you are in a relationship that is not healthy, break it off. Clear your head, get some alone time. Do whatever it is you have to do to remove yourself from the situation to process your own thoughts and emotions.
32. Let Go of Control
The idea that you have control is a fallacy. Life is an adventure and is meant to be experienced as you flow with the ups and downs of life. The more you try to control, the more “pushy” you become, and the only thing you will do is push everything and everyone away.
31. Live in the Present Moment
There is nothing like the present moment. There is no point in dreaming about the future or regretting the past. What you have is today, so make the most of it.
30. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
The older we get the more our comfort zones shrink. Things become regular, routine, and stale. The rest of our lives are spent on schedule, following the same patterns. While it is comfortable, it doesn’t allow for growth.
Experiencing new things catapults us and gives new-found freedom and confidence.
29. Go with the Flow
When you are rigid it’s like trying to swim upriver. You are going to struggle. When you are easy-going you’re flowing like water, letting whatever the day might bring, flow with you. Life flows, energy flows, the music flows, dance flows, listen to the rhythm and the flow, and dance with it.
28. Push Your Boundaries
Know your limits but don’t ever accept them.
27. Explore Yourself
Do you know who you truly are? Can you look in a mirror and say in one sentence more than just what defines you?
Related: 50+ Quotes About Happiness To Make You Feel Good About Life
26. Make Heartfelt Connections
Never underestimate the impact you can have on someone else’s life.
25. Love What You Do
Your greatest work will come from loving what you do. When you don’t love what you do, you have settled for less and have given up on your dreams. Don’t settle for less, create your masterpiece.
24. Find Satisfaction in the Simple Things
True happiness comes from freedom and freedom comes from the elimination of desire. When you desire, you suffer. The simple things matter most, its time to put it into reality.
23. Live True to Yourself
Living true to yourself means trusting yourself. Listen to your heart it knows what’s best for you.
22. Express Yourself
We are all creators. Our minds are the paint brush and the earth is our easel.
21. Go Easy on Yourself
Life is a drag when you are always beating yourself up. Learn to let go and forgive yourself. Everybody makes mistakes.
20. Stay in Contact with Friends
Don’t let time slip away. Forgive, move forward, and reconnect if you’ve fallen out of touch. One of the top 5 regrets people have on their death-bed is not staying in contact with their friends.
19. Let Go of Guilt
Guilt is something we invented to make us feel unworthy. The game of hide and seek you created for yourself. Find the real you, the center of yourself, your Godhood.
The illusion is, until you feel you have suffered enough you won’t wake up to your true power, your true identity, your eternal self.
18. Let Yourself Be Happy
If you are a parent you know the most important thing you want for your children is for them to be happy. So give it to yourself.
17. When You’re About to Say No… Say Yes!
How many times have you held yourself back from something that could have been fun? How many times have you said no to an opportunity that could have been a great adventure?
What really do you have to lose? Just do it!!
16. Be Patient
Patience doesn’t mean waiting, it means continually working hard on your dreams and keeping a positive attitude. Just because something isn’t happening for you right now in this very moment that you want to, doesn’t mean that it will never happen.
15. Keep Moving
If you stand still waiting for the wave to come crashing down on you… you’re going to get swept away. Instead, grab a board and ride with the waves of life.
14. Don’t Worry So Much
95% of what you worry about doesn’t manifest into reality anyways, so don’t lose sleep over it. Lose the worry and replace it with trust.
13. Don’t Hold Grudges
Everyone has their own reasons, everyone has their own perception of life and everyone has their own path to follow. Holding a grudge only hurts you.
12. Show Compassion
Rise above the situation, by showing compassion to others it will lift their spirit and yours.
11. Give Openly
By giving we are receiving. the more we give the more we receive. You cannot give unselfishly because while you may not realize it on some level you are getting something out of it.
Whether it just be that nice warm feeling that you have done something good, you are always receiving when you give. And that’s the beauty of giving! It is always a win-win and nothing can beat it!
10. Love Freely
By learning to love others freely we in turn are loving ourselves. Life is like looking into a mirror and every person, every teacher, is you. Love your teachers, they bring hard lessons and great development. Simply by existing in this state we make a huge step in clearing negative energy blockages and increase our ability to connect with others more deeply.
9. Put Yourself Out there
By embracing your vulnerability you empower yourself. Don’t shy away from fear, instead use it as a sign of where you should go next.
8. Let People Judge You
Yes, let people criticize you because anyone who said something negative to you has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with their own internal state.
7. Enjoy the Ride
Life is an adventure and you are an explorer. Heading out into the farthest vastness of incarnations to learn, grow, and experience. Soak up your surroundings you may not be back for a while.
6. Be Understanding
Righteousness doesn’t mean being right, it means showing love, compassion and understanding, no matter what you think is right.
Related: 30 Important Life Lessons I’ve Learned In The First 30 Years Of My Life
5. Don’t Wait for Tomorrow
The next moment in your life is not more important than this moment now. Do today what you dream of later, live today like it was your last.
4. Follow Your Intuition
The flash of insight you get before you make that important decision, trust it. The subtle nudge or gentle pull.. you feel before the situation comes to a close and you still have time, follow it. You know more than you think, you just have to trust yourself.
3. Have Humility
You may feel you have made a thousand terrible mistakes, and you may make one thousand more. There are no mistakes, there are only lessons. You are learning and growing and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it’s only as big of a deal as you make it. Go easy on yourself.
2. Follow Your Heart
Your heart knows before you know. A complex organ that generates its own electromagnetic field, holding its own consciousness; producing subtle energy, just below our average level of awareness. Follow the feelings of your heart, your intuition, this sixth sense that nudges you in the right direction. It will never fail you when you choose to finally listen.
1. Don’t Miss the Dance
Alan Watts believed that the true existence of the entire universe was a playful one. Without need or necessity, it isn’t going anywhere and it doesn’t have a destination that it ought to arrive at.
“In music, one doesn’t make the end of a composition, the point of it. If so, the best conductors would be the ones who played the fastest or those who only wrote finales. You would go to a concert to only hear one crashing chord because that’s the end. If you are dancing, you don’t aim at one spot in the room, because that is where you should arrive… the whole point of the dancing, is the dance.”- Alan Watts
If this list seems large, remember that through each milestone you will have gained a bit each time.
From 21-28 you may have learned how to express yourself better, from 28-35 you may have acquired the confidence you lacked to speak your mind more. From 35-42 you may have learned to show understanding and compassion.
Life is a school for the soul. We are here to learn and we are here to play, so don’t miss the dance!
by LJ Vanier
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