How to minimize regrets

Regret Minimization Framework,

Jul 9, 2021

Hi 👋 Prado here

3 Things I thought worth sharing with y’all

Minimizing Regret

"I wish I had never let that person convince me"
"Why did I buy this, it was a waste of time and money"
"I should have invested when I had the opportunity"

Regret has many different forms.
It can be a purchase we made, talking loud to someone we love, or a decision at work.

Regret is a feeling within us and feelings can be changed.

We all make good and bad decisions. But we need to understand that we made those decisions based on the info we had at that time and we expected an outcome.

If the outcome worked out:- we made a good decision
If it didn't:- we made a bad decision and attack ourselves with "Why did I do it"

What can we do?

Reflect on your decision: Write down your thoughts. don’t judge yourself or beat yourself up. “This didn’t work out the way I had planned, and that’s ok. How can I make it better moving forward?”
Trust yourself: Know that the decision you made was for a reason and with the best interest.
Move on: Ask yourself, "How can I let this go? Do I need to apologize to someone or myself?"
Moving forward is hard but necessary.

After you’ve let go of that regret, allocate that energy to something more productive and work towards something that adds value to your life.

How to make life decisions that you won't regret later?

This is what Jeff Bezos did in 1994 before quitting a good job and starting Amazon.

Regret Minimization Framework

Jeff Bezos was working in an investment bank. He went to his boss and told him that he has this crazy idea to start this company selling books online.
They went on a 2-hour walk and his boss advised "This is a really good idea but its an even better idea for somebody who didn't already have a good job"
That's when he came up with the regret minimization framework.

Project yourself forward to age 80 and ask what all things I should do to minimize the number of regrets I have.
Jeff Bezos knew that he might regret not ever having tried.
When you look at the long term, you forget the short-term struggles.

Next time you want to make a good life decision that you won't regret later, Think long term.

Never let someone else take your decisions.

If things don't pan out, you'll end up with two regrets:

1. You took a decision that didn't work.
2. You didn’t make that decision at all, someone else did.

Most common regret shared by people nearing death:- "I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

"Use the power of no to get your priorities straight. You rarely regret saying no. But you often wind up regretting saying yes" - Jason Fried and DHH wrote this in the book Rework.

Anger is like a piece of paper, once crushed it can never go back the way it was (See the thumbnail of this newsletter)

Control your anger, and don’t say things to people in the heat of the moment, that you may later regret. Some things in life, you are unable to take back.

The goal is to minimize the number of regrets you’ll have when you’ll be 80

The goal is to tell good stories to your grandchildren.

2) Few Interesting Things:

Keep your identity small (Blog)
A 2009 blog by Paul Graham talks about some very important points. The topic we engage in depends on us and not on the topic.
Harder than it looks, not as fun as it seems (blog)
Started a new thing… will be continuing this for a while. Join me.
Prado @pradologue
A collection of all the things I read during my evening break ☕️📚
July 6th 2021
40 Likes

Picture of the week:- Came across this picture in VV’s Blog.

“If you can tell a great story, the only thing left to do is to get people to read it.”

Question of the week:-
Prado @pradologue
What book are reading these days? Pictures are appreciated :)
July 7th 2021
6 Retweets76 Likes

Quick hack of the week:-
Want to lose weight? Drink a glass of water before your meal :)
DM me a month later <3

(If you know of any hacks, send me a mail at pradologue@gmail.com)