This post right here? right here? is da truth. Seriously good stuff. It confirms two things that I have learned to do instinctively.  When I miss train I say, "Its not my train if I am not on it."

 http://dreamdevelopment.tumblr.com/post/8042205979/the-fear-of-missed-opportunities

And when really disappointing things happen, I started saying.. "Its not 911." and that seriously puts things in perspective. Excellent post. "

Well said. This is the part that resonated most with me:

1. Our brains rationalize most of the things we do wrong.
2. Regret over the things we follow through with is rarely as bad as we anticipate and we get over it faster than we think.
3. But we can feel terrible pain for years over things that we don’t do.

The article also has a helpful how-to guide for getting over regret.

Interesting, so if you are educated, and have a good career, you will have the least regrets.

Yes. Ability to learn, plus opportunity to work on interesting things, make us look forward to what we can do in the future, instead of looking back on what we didn't do.

And thanks Eric, you do such a good job of boiling points down to get the essence of the point across :)

He does! I recommend the Candy Chang TED talk in this article, too:

Summary:

If it’s not going to get you killed, arrested, maimed or divorced, consider doing that thing. Be a little more bold.

Your future self will thank you… or just rationalize it away.

What else do older folks regret most? So much time wasted on pointless worrying.

Spend less time on your fears and more time thinking about what it is you do want to do in your life.

Read more: http://bakadesuyo.com/2014/05/overcome-regret/