Regrets For Boomers
Lina Ko December 3rd, 2007
According to David Graham of The Toronto Star, baby boomers are into some serious reflections these days. As members of the postwar generation approach a more relaxed lifestage, they are contemplating how their lives might have turned out if they had made different choices.
In 2005, psychologists Neal Roese and Amy Summerville summed up their research on regret in What We Regret Most… And Why. Their findings rank the categories that trigger regret, in the following order of frequency:
education (32%), career (22%), romance (15%), parenting (10%) and self (5.47%) were the top five.
For the most part, people agree. They would rather look back and regret the things they did than the things they didn’t do. Studies have proven that regrets of inaction persist much longer than regrets of action.
Boomers, in particular, had the power to construct their lives according to their wishes. They were not restricted by many of the pressures to conform to society’s norms that restricted their predecessors. Boomers experienced marital, geographical, educational and reproductive freedoms that were often denied to previous generations.
With so much freedom, we still regret. Instead of drowning in regrets, boomers should blow them off and rejoice in at least having taken some action and made some important decisions in life. There is still enough time ahead of us to make the most out of life and pursue our passion. Let’s say goodbye to regrets and turn them into opportunities!
I think that some of the regret is because people get stuck and can’t figure out how to move forward. We all become comfortable doing what we have always done and fail to stop and ask if it is making me happy.