Remembering the Regret

Have you ever done something that you ended up regretting? You know what you did was wrong, and you tell yourself that you’re not going to do it again, but the thing is, you end up doing it again anyway? Why do we do that? Why is that we as people fully realize that whatever it is that we did was wrong, and yet we end up doing it again?

It’s a question I’ve asked myself personally a numerous amount of time. From major mistakes in my life to the tiniest errors that manage to repeat themselves throughout the day. While just today, I was feeling rather tired and found it hard to be productive, so I decided to take a 30 minute power nap to hopefully rejuvenate myself. However, my sleepy little head had hit that snooze button instead of getting right back up, and instead of awakening and getting right back to work, I had fallen asleep for about three hours. A mistake I’ve made several times.

So we all do it, right? I don’t believe that anyone has never remade a mistake, but what exactly keeps us from correcting these mistakes? I took a bit of time to really think of some key reasons that genuinely seem to hold us back.

1. Laziness/Procrastination: The first and obvious answer is that we’re too lazy to actually correct the problem. Fixing anything is a chore, to put it simplest. Instead of actually doing the work that we have, we’d rather do something else with our time: playing games, watching T.V, going out, ect.
2. False Reassurance: One of the many reasons why I, myself had this problem is that I tried to reassure myself that A). What I was doing was ok or B). Something else was making it so that I couldn’t do it. Something along the lines of “I can’t do my homework because I left my textbook at school.” Granted, there are certain things where that situation can hold you back, there are also a multitude of resources available to solve the issue.
3. Conflicting Emotions: Instead of being lazy, you’re emotions are a big factor into why you may have a relapse in the action that you wanted to avoid previously. Say you’re being constantly overworked and you’re stressed out. Instead of getting more work done, you decide to say “screw it” and go on a binge of what may be called a “relaxation period.” Alcohol, fighting, even more procrastination, ect.
4. Mind in Control: Most likely the main problem for me, I made myself believe that whatever my mind wanted to do was what I was going to do. If I felt as if I wasn’t going to go for a jog, I probably wasn’t going to, with the opposite scenario being the same case; if I wanted to jog, I would probably go and do it. I allowed my own head to dictate whatever I did right on the spot instead of forcing myself to be productive.

There are probably many more reasons but these were the first few that popped in my head. But the real question is… how exactly do we stop doing the above, and actually succeed in stopping a bad habit?

I came up with simple solutions that counteracts all the above with probably the simplest answers.

1. Procrastination? Simplest answer is a personal favorite of mine: Just Do It. The Nike slogan sounds simple, but when you truly take the words to heart, it means a lot and can get an absolutely incredible amount of work accomplished.
2. False Reassurance? Instead of listing off all the things that can go right with what you’re doing, begin to think of everything that can go wrong in the situation. You’re much more likely to not do something if all that comes to mind is negative consequences.
3. Conflicting Emotions? While stress is a large problem with many adults and their work life, or maybe not even that scenario, it’s an issue that almost everyone must deal with. My solutions is to attempt to find a good stress relieve. Whenever I’m stressed out, I like to go for walks and listen to music. If that isn’t a plausible option, by all means take a little while off. Don’t want to work at home right after a long days of work? Go ahead, take an hour for yourself to relax, but don’t go all out, lest you forget what still needs to be done.
4. Mind in Control? Admittedly, that is a relatively difficult one to answer. For me, I overcame it because of realizations. I realized that I can force myself to get what I need to do, done. While that may not happen for everyone, I think the best option is to try to find ways to sway your thoughts into doing something. Take some logic into consideration when your head makes quick decisions, way in the factors, and hopefully you’ll end up with the outcome that you would like.

I’m sure there are many other reasons out there as to why we redo actions that we didn’t want to do. If you can think of some, feel free to comment and I’ll try to think of a way to overcome it.

I hope you found this post to be helpful so that you may grow and become a better person every day. If you like some of the other things on the site, feel free to subscribe for a notification to whenever a new post is out. Thanks you all and may you live amazing lives!