We make choices every day. Sometimes these choices involve work, but sometimes they don’t. Sometime we are happy with our choices and other times we question whether we made the right one.
We often will regret things we have or haven’t said and/or the things that we have or haven’t done. So the question is, what is the best way to live without having those feelings?
I believe the best way to live without regret is to pursue a professional mission that resonates with our true authentic selves. When we do that we are setting ourselves up to have the best shot at building work:life harmony for ourselves.
This next principle is very to the point and doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation:
Dokkōdō Principle #6: waga koto ni oite kokai o sezu (我が事において後悔おせず) English interpretation: Do not regret what you have done
Musashi is being very direct in his instruction with this principle. He is letting his students know that it is very important to lead a life without regret and to avoid doing things that you will later regret.
So how can you start taking steps to make sure that your professional pursuit aligns with our authentic selves?
In a word, integration. We can avoid these feelings of not living up to our own best self by integrating our professional life into our personal life. By understanding the intersection between our two selves, we can start to appreciate the importance of professional fulfillment.
There are some things in my life that I look back on with some regret. For the most part it is instances where I didn’t do what I knew I was supposed to do instinctually, or said something that I knew I shouldn’t have.
I believe this is mostly due to the fact that for most of my life I lived in such a way that I wasn’t embracing my professional pursuit and personal mission. Because of that I ended up doing and saying things outside of that journey that thankfully I now find myself on.
There is a worry many of us have in our head, which is: am I doing what I want in this life? This anxiety exists for both business owners and personal life milestones. We also worry we might not be doing enough to fulfill the pursuit that we have.
We can build this up in our heads quite easily because our human tendency is to compare ourselves to others and like I mentioned in the last post we often get trapped in a negative desire to compete and outpace others.
If we can take on more of an attitude of self leadership and growth for the sake of ourselves and only ourselves I believe that this can help us move ever closer to the goal of living without regret.
Learning to live without regret is one of the most important things you can take on to master your life. It’s never too late to take action, while you still have time to foster your authentic self.
If you would like to learn more about how to discover your authentic self or learn to develop a professional pursuit for yourself, please reach out I would be happy to have a conversation with you.
#ikigai #kokorozashi #noregrets #worklifeharmony #flow
Steve Beauchamp 
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