Don't worry, I'm not going to write this article in French! It's just that when I was at school we had a French teacher who was an admirer of the French chanteuse the late Edith Piaf and as the end of the school year got near he would take the opportunity to bring in his old records and play them to us. It was a break from the normal lessons and good way to learn some new French words.

But one of Piaf's songs particularly stood out with me and I've always remembered it. It was called "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien", which means "No, I regret nothing". But why am I telling you this?

Well simply it sums up the way you should approach life. Most of us make mistakes and take some wrong decisions in our lives. Not everything goes the way we would like or runs smoothly to plan. You probably have lots of "what ifs" and "if onlys" playing on your mind. Most people do. And sadly, that's where they go wrong, because no matter what you have done in the past you cannot change it.

What's done is done, and no matter how much you may regret it and wish you could change what happened, the fact is you just can't!

The problem is that while you continue to have these thoughts your subconscious mind will continue to use them as a way of holding you back. You need to re-program your mind to take on a "will do" attitude instead of a "what if" one. You cannot change what has happened but you can decide what to do today. And you can influence what happens in the future. You just have to take action.

Let me give you an example:

One of the most common regrets that people have is that they wish they had worked harder at school and had achieved higher grades and better qualifications. Then they would not be stuck in the dead-end job they find themselves in.

The trouble is they usually just say to themselves "if only" and then carry on just the same. They accept their situation because in their minds they believe they are there because of something they did in the past and their mind is happy to accept it because they regret it. The fact is, it is their fault that they are in that dead-end job! But not because of what they did in the past, but rather what they do not do today.

There are so many opportunities to study to achieve what you want in life regardless of what you are doing now and what age you are. You can go back to college, join an evening class on one of the hundreds of subjects available, enroll on a correspondence course through the mail, or sign up for an online course. There are so many ways of learning about new topics, developing new skills, and discovering new experiences. You simply have to make the decision today to do something!

I guess that you have already taken that step because you have chosen to read this article. But you must progress further. And it is vital that you understand that you must regret nothing and instead learn from what has gone before. So decide what you want today and take the steps necessary to get it.