The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward

The very act of contemplating what they hadn’t done previously widened the possibilities of what they could do next and provided a script for future interactions.[4]

The emotion becomes regret only when she does the work of boarding the time machine, negating the past, and contrasting her grim actual present with what might have been. Comparison lives at regret’s core.

Every damn thing you do in life can pay off for you. Because, as we’re about to discover, regret doesn’t just

Human beings are both seasoned time travelers and skilled fabulists.

Our cognitive apparatus is designed, at least in part, to sustain us in the long term rather than balm us in the near term.

The psychological concept is known as “escalation of commitment to a failing course of action.”

Optimism is associated with better physical health. Emotions like joy, gratitude, and hope significantly boost our well-being.[8] We need plenty of positive emotions in our portfolio. They should outnumber the negative ones.[9] Yet overweighting our emotional investments with too much positivity brings its own dangers. The imbalance can inhibit lea

This combination of time travel and fabulism is a human superpower. It’s hard to fathom any other species doing something so complex,

These seventy years of research distill to two simple yet urgent conclusions: Regret makes us human. Regret makes us better.