Ok. Time to get real. We have all been there. We all have something (or somethings) we regret.

Ouch. Ok Mike. Real fun blog, Buddy.

Hear me out. What if we could make that regret – a success? Ah ha!

The world may be feeling a bit heavy for you right now. But take pause and take a look around. There may never be a better time for you to reconcile a regret and find ways to apply those lessons to new opportunities.

These days, I am taking my regrets, and OWNING those pesky little beasts. In my personal life and in my business. I am actively seeking out regret and turning them around. I am turning regrets into opportunities. And it feels so good.

In this video I give just one example. Confession. I am not flexible. Not in a stringent, old grouch kind of way. More like oh say, an anti-Gumby kind of way. Even after all the years of sports, running, HIIT workouts and competing with, well, myself, I feel like the least flexible man on the planet. You get the picture.

So whaddya going to do about it, Mike?

I have stopped ignoring that little voice in my head that taunted me for nearly snapping when I try to touch my toes. I began hyperbolic stretching. And guess what? It. Is. Working!

I have changed the messaging in my head. Instead of saying, “Ah Mike, too bad you never stretched, you inflexible old man”, now I say, “I want to be flexible, so what techniques will I apply to meet my goal?” Again, this is just one example. I know you may have much larger regrets. But the lesson is the same.

How will you transform your regret into your success? That question is really the sum of all of this. Don’t accept your regret as a life sentence. If it will make your life or your business better, start now! (Like now. Stop reading and start now! I’ll wait.) Here are a few actions I take:

• Own it! Make it yours. Once you’ve owned that regret deep down, you can use that regret as a building block. If you truly own it then you won’t make that mistake again, and will have a clear vision of what you DO want to do. You know, like learning from your own bad example.
• Revisit and prepare. What was the lesson? Turning regret into opportunity doesn’t necessarily translate into correcting that exact regret. It does translate, however, into a raised awareness about what you want your life to look like. What questions could you have asked yourself when a missed opportunity took place? What would you have done differently?
• Reframe the past, reframe your mindset
  Don’t let regret drag you down. We all know we can’t change the past. But the past doesn’t dictate our future. The future is yours! How will you apply the lesson you learned to shape your future?

Remember – regret equals opportunity. In your personal life, and in business. Harness your regrets. Learn the lessons. Apply them to an opportunity. You can build something wonderful.

I am wishing you many, many opportunities for success!

-Mike