Sometimes we hear things that change the way we behave in life instantly because we clearly understand how regretful we will feel if we don’t. For instance, when our grandfather loses our grandmother and tells us to cherish the ones we love because there’s not much time to do so, we pull those closest to us closer. But what if we could affirm things to ourselves that help us avoid regret as much as possible – even if we don’t hear those wise life-changing words?
6 Affirmations You Can Use Today That Will Minimize Regret In The Future
We can use affirmations to help us make the most of our lives now and avoid regret later. Affirming certain things to ourselves over and over again can help us form solid beliefs around those affirmations, and that’s when our affirmations automatically start helping us get what we want most – in this case, less regret.
1. Today Is The Best Day To Start
Have you ever put something off for a month, a year, or a decade, and then wish you had started when you first thought of it? For instance, have you ever wanted to start eating healthier, but put it off until you got sick enough that it was now or never?
Even if you haven’t had an experience as extreme as that, I’m sure you’ve had experiences where you wish you would have just started doing something differently sooner.
The affirmation – today is the best day to start – will help you get started on those important things today. It will help you form the belief that your good ideas should always start now, not next Monday, next month, or next year.
All you need to do is take action knowing that if you don’t do it today – even though you know you should – the regret is going to be painful down the line.
2. I Take One Day At A Time
How can this affirmation help you avoid regret? In so many ways! For example, it will help you:
- Form new habits – Often the stress of what you are doing, the pain of it being out of your comfort zone, and the length of time you foresee yourself doing it can cause you to quit whatever habit you are trying to form. But if you take it one day at a time, it becomes much easier to stick with it.
- Change destructive habits – Again, the stress of change can be hard, but when you take it one day at a time and don’t focus on how far you have to go, it becomes much easier. For instance, when you quit smoking, life without a cigarette can feel overwhelming at first, but when you take it one day at a time, that overwhelming feeling disappears and it becomes much easier to commit to being smoke-free for today.
- Starting a business – Whether you are starting a huge business or a YouTube channel, approaching it one day at a time is best. It helps you build solid stepping stones in your business and, since success can take a while, it keeps you from giving up before you even really get started.
- Nurture A Relationship – It’s important to take it one day at a time in a relationship. If you are always living in the future of your relationship, you can miss out on precious moments, ruin entire days with the wrong focus, and even cause a ton of stress and strain in your relationship.
3. I Seek Help When I Need It
Whether you are struggling physically or mentally, it’s important to seek help when you need it. Don’t wait for weeks, months, or years to finally get some help. If you do that, you will waste so much time living in struggle.
For instance, a friend of mine was sick from the age of 18-38. For 20 years she lived with chronic pain, digestive issues, headaches, mood swings, and more. She thought it was just a part of who she was. She had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia when she was 18 and the only advice she had been given by her doctor was to eat healthier, so she just assumed that’s what was causing her all the pain. She never looked for any help to overcome all these issues. She just lived with it. Then one day she had a complete blood test done at the age of 38 because she suddenly wanted to know if something more was going on, and she found out she had hypothyroidism. She went on medication, tweaked her diet, and a few months later she was feeling amazing. But she regretted spending 20 years of her life not seeking help.
Don’t waste time ‘living with it’. If you need help, whether it be physically or mentally, seek it out. And look until you find something that actually helps because it’s out there.
4. I Face My Fears When I Think It Will Help Me
All positive change lives beyond our fears.
Anything new is scary. Anything out of our comfort zone is scary. That’s why we feel fear when we are faced with doing something new and uncomfortable.
Sometimes it’s good to listen to this fear. For instance, if you are scared of driving on thin ice, then your fear is something you should listen to.
However, if you think doing something new could impact your life positively, it’s important to acknowledge your fear, but do it anyway. You will never know what might have happened if you don’t at least take a chance.
5. I Accept That My Assumptions Are Not Always Right
Want to avoid the regret of saying something stupid or doing something stupid? This is a positive affirmation that can help you do that.
When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me. I just had to throw that in there!
But, really, assumptions cause you to make decisions based on information that may not be totally correct.
I can’t count the number of times I did something stupid based on an assumption and regretted it later.
For instance, after buying a course, I noticed a few days later it had gone down in price. I assumed I had been screwed over, and my anger got the best of me. I wrote a mean email to the company demanding a refund and telling them exactly what I thought of them. I SHOULD have just written an email asking what had happened, but my assumption led my behavior. After I got the refund, I realized that the product had coincidentally gone into a preplanned special offer a few days after I bought it, and I had just missed the boat. It wasn’t the company’s fault. It wasn’t my fault. It was just one of those bad timing things. I never took the course because I was too embarrassed to write back after my hateful, ugly rant, and I regret that big time!
In short, this affirmation can help you from doing stupid things, breaking up relationships, and losing out on opportunities, among other things.
Always affirm to yourself that your assumptions are not always right, and then find out the truth before you react to something in any way.
6. I Make The Most Of My Day
You will be surprised at how using this affirmation will change your life. The more you say it, the more you will find yourself unable to waste time in your day doing pointless stuff.
You will want to do things that matter. You will want to spend quality time with your loved ones. You will want to work on your business, talents, hobbies, etc. You will get up and do ‘it’ and stop making excuses for not doing ‘it’.
When you truly believe that you make the most of your day, and you start making the most of your day, your life is going to change and regret is going to dwindle down to almost nothing.
