The Problem With ‘No Regrets’
“How to Build a Life” is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness. Click here to listen to his podcast series on all things happiness, How to Build a Happy Life.
“Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention,” Frank Sinatra crooned in his 1969 hit “My Way.” The song takes its power from a seductive idea: that anyone can just declare that what’s done is done in life and move on. Some take the declaration a step further and claim that they have no regrets at all (even to the point of tattooing it on their body). Whether an aspiration or an actual philosophy, “No regrets” suggests that life can and should be lived without looking through the rearview mirror.
Easier said than done, though. In 2020, the author Daniel Pink launched the, the largest survey on the topic
