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How Regret Has Taught Me More About Self-Care as a Business Owner

When burn out leads you to make the changes you need to make.

By Laura TranPublished 5 years ago 2 min read
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The time I took recovering from my burn out gave me a chance to see things from a different perspective. It gave me a chance to separate my regret, guilt, and what I thought of as short comings from my actions. In essence, I was separating my emotions from my actions so I could define them clearly. I needed to identify my motivators and my drivers.

This burn out pushed me to take the down time for some deep self reflection.

I want more out of life than I have now.

I regretted not completing college. I regretted not pushing myself to go after my dreams earlier in life. Because of that I am left with lots of passions unfulfilled. That leaves a certain amount of inner chaos inside of me. I was harboring a sense of unsatisfaction. In response to those feelings I set out to accomplish a crazy amount of goals in an unrealistic time span.

I first had to practice some acceptance and gratitude. This was my first self care practice that became out of regret.

You can not change the past.

No matter how much work I do now, I cannot change the past. I can however move forward. But I couldn’t truly do that until I learned how to practice gratitude. I have accomplished many things in my life. I have many great stories to tell. But I was so blinded by the regret I was holding on to that I was missing my opportunities of celebration.

To be your best, you have to take the best care of yourself.

Since I have been practicing gratitude, I have been able to see regret as a tool and less as a nemesis. I use it as a motivator, and as a teacher.

What Lessons I Learned about Self Care from Regret:

  1. Practice gratitude—Be grateful for all that you have accomplished so far and all the wonderful things you have in your life. Write down what your grateful daily. Constantly remind yourself of your blessings.
  2. Take time to rest—You have to give yourself the opportunity to recharge. You will be so much more productive and have sharper thoughts when you do.
  3. Celebrate often—Reward yourself for your accomplishments. Growing your sense of pride in your work will strengthen your confidence and self esteem. This is a strong motivator to keep moving forward.
  4. Take your time—Don’t rush your projects. Let them grow. Give yourself the space to thoroughly develop them and enjoy the process along the way.
  5. Do not isolate—Regret can cause us to want to withdraw. Don’t. If you are feeling overwhelmed with regret, reach out to a loved one. Talk it out.

Regret can be a tool if we do not allow it to consume us. It can be a way for us to reflect and to make a plan on how we want to move forward. We can take regret and break it down to discover a lesson that needed learned.

As a business owner, I learned how to manage my time better. I also learned how important it is to make sure we have a passion for whatever we are doing. And that balance is key to success. Through the experiences I have had, I have picked up many skills and even some wisdom and this will help me in my future endeavors. That is why they say we must 'fail forward.' We learn in our mistakes.

healing
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About the Creator

Laura Tran

Just a gal sharing her stories of living her life with autoimmune disease, realist positivity, PTSD, artist, and other things with a crumb of cynicism & a sprinkle of sarcasm.

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