We all are humans and we make mistakes. Recently I was lazy enough to miss one of my domains renewed on time which had 1000 visitors a month and it was taken by someone else even before I thought of acting. I had not looked at the impact the website was making but as soon as I lost it, i discovered the impact it was making and I started to regret my laziness and not acting fast enough. I did not share this with many but I can guess what will be their response. When we do regret, people in our support stucture comes up with various suggestions, most of which have the same theme – "don't regret". 

BUT then it is humanly impossible* not to regret and it is something we have to deal with. One well known way we all know to deal with a mistake is to focus on learning from the mistake and set in stone such that we don't repeat it (well, at least not in near future). However to put an honest effort to "learning from mistakes" we need to get over regret first.

So given that we have to deal with regret, sooner than later, the key point I want to raise is (well an obvious one) this – longer it takes you to come out of regret more it will cost you – emotionally, financially and physically. Being aware of it helps us act faster and come out of regret sooner.

So next time you regret, ask yourself – what is my regret cost? Or simply put, how much is this regret costing me?

* – If you think it is possible to not to regret good for you. However for most it is not. Here is an expert view (ted video) on the same.