People who say they have had no regrets in life are not self aware. amirite?

I get what you're saying, and do agree with you, but the problem here is more that you don't understand what people mean when they say, "I have had no regrets." They do not mean they have not learned from poor choices they have made in the past. What they mean is that the person they are today is BECAUSE of those poor choices they made in the past. If those things didn't happen, they would not have became the person they are today. If they view themselves as a good person and are happy with their life; why would they want anything that has happened to them to play out differently? They wouldn't. That means they have no regrets.

by doyle93 11 hours ago

Maybe I am being too literal....but the definition of regret: feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that has happened or been done, especially a loss or missed opportunity). I guess I am more referring to people who say the phrase as if they have "won" the game of life. As if all of their decisions were correct or they have never felt disappointed over a decision. It seems like saying you have no regrets in life is a good thing...I think realistically, everyone has regrets.

by Anonymous 11 hours ago

I think the idea is if you think about things long enough and time passes they become sort of bitter sweet. They don't make you sad or disappointed they just are and everything after has built on it that you really wouldn't change a thing even though it was painful for some time. Now that you see the big picture you know it had to happen you were who you were it couldn't be another way

by verner14 11 hours ago

If you're choosing to view it that way, sure, I would agree with you. Those kind of people who say they have no regrets because 'everything is and has always been awesome' are just silly. My point is a lot of people use the phrase "No regrets" akin to how I explained above, and those people are self aware.

by doyle93 10 hours ago

I don't think you actually understand what people mean when they say they don't have regrets

by Glittering-Fix-3848 10 hours ago

Maybe I am being too literal....but think the saying gives off an elitist vibe.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

How on earth do you get elitist from that statement?

by Glittering-Fix-3848 9 hours ago

It could be interpreted as if you have made every right decision in life and have never been sad or disappointed about anything. Again, I said I was probably being too literal, but that is the definition of regrets.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

yea you're being too literal when you're pulling out merrian-webster. it's a figure of speech. which is defined as: ‘a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect' 😂

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

Hahahaha....well done.

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

Yeah that's waaaaaay too literal Typically when people say that they mean that their life has had ups and downs, but it brought them to where they are and they are happy for that. Or that they do their best to live in the present without letting past decisions haunt them. Or that they have made some really tough decisions before, and even though that was hard they were okay with how it turned out Like not even in my life once have a heard someone use the phrase in the way you are imagining it.

by Glittering-Fix-3848 8 hours ago

Yeah...I get it. The user below said it best: The idea of "I don't have any regrets because my mistakes have helped shape who I am today" is absurd and silly. All of us have aspects about our life that we wish were different. I'm happy and relatively successful (financially secure, good relationships, mental and physical health is good), but that doesn't mean I wouldn't change things in my past if I had a Time Machine assuming things in the current could be improved. I view statements like that as trite and without any consideration of what they actually mean. I hate to be overly judgmental, but the people I generally hear those things from are living less than desirable lives. It's like an attempt to sound intelligent that lands flat.

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

Its absolutely not absurd at all. Personally I absolutely wouldn't change anything despite wondering how things would go. And I grew up surrounded by death.. I've seen far to many people die with many viewpoints and multiple walks of life. Ive also made horrible mistakes that have impacted myself to this day and others. If I hadn't made those choices I wouldn't be who I am now. And I wouldn't of been able to help others like im able to. I would absolutely not be the current squish and dreaming otherwise is a moot point. If you dont accept things and work past things you'll be burdened by every choice you make through your life. And those people? Are usually miserable and stressed at the end, taking it out on others and mourning what can never ever be changed. You also hear this from people who are not to your living standards since some of them have had to fight the hardest with their life choices to even get where they are at that moment.

by Anonymous 7 hours ago

I always think about the ripple/butterfly effect. I wouldn't change anything in my past, even given that things didn't always turn out optimally, because I would inevitably not have many of the exact things that I love, today. If you have a child, for instance-- you wouldn't have that exact person in your life if you made basically any minute changes to your path leading up to their conception. That one sperm and that one egg would never have connected. At that point, making a change to your life before them would be to end their existence. Knowledge and insights about life could be viewed the same way. We would be sacrificing a part of ourselves as well.

by Anonymous 7 hours ago

i have no regrets in my life. because i dont dwell on the past.

by Shanel67 7 hours ago

So you have never had a feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over something that has happened or been done. You can have regrets and learn from it and not dwell on it.

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

its in the past, and it stays in the past, and no longer relevant.

by Shanel67 6 hours ago

You just said regrets...so you did have regrets. I think a more genuine saying is, "Of course I have regrets, and knowing what I know now would have made different choices."

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

Even if your "mistakes" had a very negative impact on yours or another's life...you would not change it. Or regret it? Genuine question....do you think the person you have become is the perfect version of yourself?

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

"If I had my life to live over, I'd still do the same things." This was said by my late mother, who was a covert narc and scapegoated me so the rest of my family did,too. I'm not sure if it would be lacking self-awareness or the idea that some people's egos are so massive that they can't look at the fact that their actions hurt other people. For some people, it's FAR more important to have things done their way and the consequences of their actions having hurt someone be damned. I felt like I had to say this.

by No-Procedure 5 hours ago

To me, people like this are just coping. I have a good life but still have thousands of regrets

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

Not going to read that book, but "not having any regrets" is a state of mind rather than a statement to be true or false.

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

yup! it's a figure of speech!

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

Depends on the context but I can't agree, I don't have many regrets(more of what you didn't do) but they don't outweigh my real learning experience's(Good or bad)

by First-Warthog 5 hours ago

No regerts

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

No Ragerts!

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

Tbh I think the phrase means "I have no major regrets," mostly because everyone regrets something

by Independent_Poem 4 hours ago

Well if you're going that way, your original assertion isn't contrary to any popular opinion. An unpopular opinion would be like "Titanic wasn't an enjoyable movie!"

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

I think it's possible, in theory, for people who truly don't believe in free will to have no regrets. If you believe you literally could not have acted otherwise, there's nothing to regret, because alternate outcomes were impossible. In practice, I think this won't hold up for many people when it comes to big mistakes with heavy consequences. But I can at least see how it'd be possible for somebody to see their life as deterministic dominoes and their agency as an illusion.

by elnoravonrueden 3 hours ago

Yep this one. I have no regrets in life because I genuinely and fully believe in a prewritten reality, and that free will is an illusion. The way I view reality - everything can only happen one way anyway. So why would I regret vs reflecting and using it as a learning experience for my future? Nothing else was possible anyway.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

Interesting....my mind doesn't work that way. It may make life easier if it did....but just can't imagine there is some puppet master that has already pre determined outcomes.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

Understandable! It was a huge adjustment even for me to believe and align with this view. But it was also kind of freeing when I did. Can confirm it made my most difficult and agonizing situation a lot less stressful

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I don't have regrets because regrets are fantasy's ('wish') about things happening a different way than they did. Are there things that I've done poorly/badly that would be better if I hadn't, and should I learn from them? For sure. But I don't regret them (sit around wishing I hadn't done them, or had). That is a waste of time and mental space, and is backwards looking rather than forwards.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

Regret is a verb. It's something you do.

by Anonymous 2 hours ago

The idea of "I don't have any regrets because my mistakes have helped shape who I am today" is absurd and silly. All of us have aspects about our life that we wish were different. I'm happy and relatively successful (financially secure, good relationships, mental and physical health is good), but that doesn't mean I wouldn't change things in my past if I had a Time Machine assuming things in the current could be improved. I view statements like that as trite and without any consideration of what they actually mean. I hate to be overly judgmental, but the people I generally hear those things from are living less than desirable lives. It's like an attempt to sound intelligent that lands flat.

by BetterExcuse 2 hours ago

Here's the problem: "assuming things in the current could be improved." You're making a wild assumption. When I hear things like this it just makes me think people don't have a proper understanding of time travel. You WANT to think that you could go back, make a change, and you "see the line" your life would play out from that change. But you have NO IDEA AT ALL the consequences one minor change could spiral into every other aspect of your life. You could be a wildly different person who is very unhappy, it's just arbitrary guessing to say anything will be better or worse. So when you don't know, it's silly to change something. I absolutly would not want to change anythings in my past because it's an unnessecary risk to take.

by doyle93 1 hour ago

Thank you! This is well said and kind of what I was trying to explain.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago