the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

With 65 looming next birthday it would be odd if there was nothing that I regretted, but the problem with regrets is that they can, at best,distract you and at worst, screw you up. So how best to handle them?

Sooner or later we all do something that we would have preferred not to. Maybe a word out of place, breaking something or just making a mistake; there are al sorts of things that we might do that we regret. How we react to such events is no more than a matter of choice though and that is what I want to look at here.

When something goes wrong if you dwell on it to any degree that part of your mind that is focussed on the event is not being used to move you forward with whatever else you need to be doing. The more you worry about something the less you can focus on the present, let alone the future.

Sports psycologists talk about being able to put an error behind you, to rid yourself of the negative thinking that can come from a setback and ficus on the next shot, point or whatever. By all means look back on something that you regret to analyse what you might do to mitigate the risk of doing the same thing again, but try to do that after the event when you can do it dispassionately.

Yes I have a few regrets, but I can’t change what is past and done I can only learn and move on. And if you thought that I was about to burst into a quick rendition of My Way,we I regret that I shan’t.