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How much time and energy should you spend today regretting your mistakes of 10 or 20 years ago?

• mattlondon 1y ago
  Depends entirely on how many people you killed I guess?
• dgfitz 1y ago
  I think the correct answer in terms of mental health is: as little time as possible. The actual answer is more complicated. Someone who got locked up for 25 years knowingly committing a significant crime might regret it for the majority of their sentence, at least.
  • tsimionescu 1y ago
    I don't think this is true at all. Living your life ignoring all of your past mistakes can be just as unhealthy as dwelling on them needlessly. Dwelling on past mistakes can lead to hopelessness and depression, but ignoring them entirely can lead to narcissism and repeating damaging patterns.
• ludicrousdispla 1y ago
  I think mistake is an overused word, and a choice that qualifies as a mistake in the future may not be judged as a mistake now. Simply put... we make choices based on the information we have now. And our future judgment of our choices should account for the information we had back then, most of which has probably been forgotten. But to answer your question, we shouldn't regret our mistakes but it is very good to remember them.
• tsimionescu 1y ago
  Depends a lot on the mistake and your life since then. Is it something you could still fix today? Is it a mistake you keep repeating? Is it a huge mistake that still directly impacts your relationships and today in some way?