Live Your Life With No Regrets

If you ask me if I have any regrets in my life, I will tell you no. Everything I've done brought me to where I am today. If I did have one regret that I used to hold on to, it was that I didn't go away to college. I was a mama's girl and didn't want to move away. I regret not having that whole college campus life experience.

But I let that go, too. I have learned that life is too short for regrets. It's too short for what ifs. If you make a mistake, learn your lesson, then move on and don't look back. Don't beat yourself up over the mistake, and don't let anyone hold that mistake over your head thirty years later.

You hear people say all the time, I should have done that, I wish I did this differently. If I could do it over, I would do this...

I remember talking to my soul sister, and we were talking about my book. She asked me if I would change my life and all the pain I had in it, if I could?

I didn't even have to think about the question. No, definitely not. All that I went through, I had to. There were big lessons I needed to learn, and to be able to share with others. I needed to grow and be grateful in this place of peace that I am in now. 

I know how much pain I had in my life, but even still, I wouldn't change a single thing. I don't beat myself up for the horrible choices I have made, and believe me, I made many, especially when it came to men. Lord, help me! 

But each mistake made me stronger. It taught me what I wouldn't put up with the next time around. It made me know my self-worth and know how I expect to be treated the next time.

Every time I fell on my face, it taught me to be able to laugh at myself. To let go of my ego and to be brave enough to put it out there to teach others a lesson.

Every time I said or wrote something stupid, I learned to apologize. I learned to let go of trying to be right, and to humble myself and admit what I did wrong.

Every pain of losing people I loved taught me not to take a loved one for granted. It taught me how very short life is and to enjoy it.

It taught me to let people know how much they mean to me, each and every day that they are here.

Every betrayal of a friend or family member taught me to hold tight to the ones who had my back. I've learned to trust my institution, and more importantly, I've learned to let go of hatred and anger.

Yes, everything I went through, every broken heart, every tear I cried at night, every time I cried out to God because I thought I could no longer go on. Every one of these things taught me a lesson that shaped me into who I am today.

So today, my friends, remember that before you lose someone you love, you will tell them that you appreciate them. You will live your life large, and yes, keep making mistakes because at the end of the day, we are all human. But then you pick yourself up, you figure out the lesson you need to learn, and you move on. The biggest lesson you need to learn is that you have learned to live your life with no regrets.

"Be the change you want to see"