If you can’t tell by now I’m a big fan of inspirational quotes.  I tweet them out, post them on Facebook,  pin them on Pinterest, and include them in my newsletters. Just when I thought I’ve seen them all, I came across one that resonates so much truth to me that I just had to write about it.

From the beautiful and legendary Marilyn Monroe:

“Nothing last forever. So live it up, drink it down, laugh it off. Avoid the drama, take chances, and never have regrets. Because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted.”

I just want to plaster this quote everywhere I can. I want a huge poster of it to hang in my home. If I could sum up how to live a good life in less then 50 words, this would be it.

The part that really resonates for me the most in this quote is the line …never have regrets. Because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted. That certainly put’s all of our “mistakes” from the past into perspective.

I’m pretty good at beating myself up for poor choices I’ve made. I should have known better. I should have thought it through. I shouldn’t have given in. I can should myself like nobody’s business. I see this with many of my clients as well. Blaming themselves for poor choices, or bad decisions. But this quote made me see things differently. Every “unwise” decision or act from my past was something that I wanted. I wanted to make those choices. I thought I was doing the right thing. And sometimes I knew I was doing the wrong thing, but I did it anyway because I wanted to. In fact I’ve never done anything in the past that I didn’t actually want to do in that moment.

When I recognize that all the things I regret are actually things that I chose, that I wanted, then I begin to take ownership of them. I begin to take responsibility for my decisions and the circumstances of my life. And I have a much easier time actually forgiving myself. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all looked back on some parts of our life and wish we could have chosen differently. But what good does  harboring blame and regret do?

If we are going to live an adventurous life as Marilyn suggests, then mistakes are inevitable. We will make poor choices. We will get ourselves into messy situations. We will act too rashly. But we will be acting from our hearts desire. Whether it pans out the way we hoped or not. And that is really living.

So no more regrets. No more blaming ourselves for actions we’ve taken in the past. Own your mistakes and learn from them. I don’t know about you, but I would rather live an exciting adventurous life full of “mistakes,” rather  than a life where I am playing it safe.