Fear of Regret: The Greatest Motivator

When we’re feeling unmotivated, we often try to seek out positive inspiration like the possibility of earning more money, experiencing the satisfaction of achievement, or receiving the praise and admiration of others for our accomplishments. However, more “negative” concepts can often serve as powerful motivators too.

Take, for instance, the fear of regret. You may already have a collection of common fears lurking in your subconscious, such as the fear of stepping out of your comfort zones, the fear of failure or success, and the fear that you don’t have the talent and strength necessary to achieve your dreams. While these fears often work against you by paralyzing you into inaction, the fear of regret can work FOR you by urging you to take action!

Here’s how: consider for a moment what you will do and how you will feel if you DON’T accomplish what you want in life.

Fast forward through your life to your final few minutes upon this earth, and imagine how you would feel knowing that you wasted the chance you’d been given to create an amazing life. How would that make you feel? Can you imagine the horrible weight of regret that would sit on your heart? Can you imagine how keenly you would wish for a chance to start over again? Really allow yourself to feel the way you would if this became your reality. It may seem to be a morbid mind-set, but it’s important because you may indeed be heading toward such a fate.

Stories and quotes about regret are plentiful. Millions of people, at the moment of their demise suddenly wish they had done things differently, and this is probably not the first time you’re reading words like these.

However, instead of reflecting on these words for a mere few minutes and then forgetting them, I want you to carry them in your heart always. I want you to USE the fear of regret to accomplish great things. Remember that your life is not a dress rehearsal. You are here for a limited amount of time, and then that’s it! It’s over! Curtains! It may seem to be an overly dramatic view of life, but you can’t argue the fact that it’s true.

If you keep this in mind throughout the rest of your days, you will be able to use the fear of regret to propel you forward like nothing ever has before. The fear of regret can be the MOST POWERFUL MOTIVATOR you’ll ever have.

If you want to make this fear work for you, learn to use it in effective ways. Learn how to make your fear of regret much larger and more ominous than your fear of taking action. Let the fear of regret become your constant companion. Allow yourself to feel terrified of mediocrity and a mundane existence. Take time to ponder the horrible consequences of not trying to better your life.

Stop worrying so much about what might happen if you DO move forward, and worry instead about what will happen if you DON’T.

And then do something about it.