I made up my mind about 4 years ago, in what will probably be marked as my darkest days, that I would allow no room for regret in my life.

Regret as we now refer to it, as I believe you are in your question, is to wish we did things differently - to wish we could take something back, start over and have another go at it.

Another chance.

For me, to hold onto that - to wish for it differently - is to do myself a disservice. I approach every thing life brings me and the chances I take throughout, failures and all, with the mentality that no matter what the outcome it happened for a reason.

In the depths of despair I always tell myself that I will learn from this experience, no matter how difficult the learning, no matter how long it takes to learn - that I will, in fact, be a much better person for having gone through it.

Not taking the easy way out - wishing I had done it better or differently - but gaining monumental wisdom and receiving it as a part of me. Not rejecting it because it hurts.

As long as you are allowing yourself to fully learn from "mistakes" they can turn into the brightest points of your life. Because of the survival, the making it.

That's achievement.

As coal to a diamond, allow yourself to be pressed beyond the breaking point. Live to the fullest - with everything you've got. It'll be worth it in the end.