Study Youll have fewer regrets if you chase your passions

Study Youll have fewer regrets if you chase your passionsStudy Youll have fewer regrets if you chase your passionsOur deepest regrets come from our failure to live up to our ideal selves, says new research from Cornell. People are much more regretful about not fulfilling their dreams and aspirations than they are about failing to fulfill their responsibilities and the long list of things they ought to do.So this year, why not try getting good at the guitar collecting dust in the corner or learning a new language, instead of doing what youre supposed to do, like dragging yourself to the gym more often.When we evaluate our lives, we think about whether were headed towards our ideal selves, becoming the partie wed like to be, says study co-author Tom Giolovich, a psychologist and former Cornell graduate student, in a release. Those are the regrets that are going to stick with you because they are what you look at through the windshield of life.The research identifies three parts that ma ke up a parts self the actual self, the ideal self, and the ought self (thats the part filled with obligations, demands, and things we really should do). Its the failure to live up to ones ideal self that really bothers people not the failure to live up to the ought self.Peoples biggest regrets come from whether they acted or failed to act, according to the study. Typically, major regrets come from things people didnt do (but wish they had), rather than things people did do (but wish they hadnt).The failure to be your ideal self is usually an inaction, said Gilovich. Its I frittered away my time and never got around to teaching myself to code or play a musical instrument. In one experiment, 72% said they had the biggest regrets about not being the person they could have been (over not being the person they should have been). In another study, where participants were asked to write down their regrets, 57% of those regrets were about the failure to live up to their ideal selves.In sh ort, itll bother you less if you fail to stick to your healthy-eating plan this year a thing you ought to do. But youll truly regret it if you dont spend any time working on your novel.