Marshall Goldsmith Shows How Regret Can Lead to Change

In a new blog post adapted from his new book, THE EARNED LIFE, the renowned leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith writes about two clients of his who approached regrets in different ways — one who changed his mind to take a job he regretted turning down, and another who is haunted by regret despite her success.

Regret is a driver of change if you can act on it. Marshall Goldsmith shows how.

The House recently voted nearly along party lines to ban the sale of semiautomatic weapons to people under the age of 21. Though the bill passed 223 to 204, it stands no chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate.

Gun control rights and bans are still raging in political discussions today. Democrats regret letting the ban on assault guns lapse in 2004. Ten years earlier they had almost passed a total ban on semiautomatic assault rifles as part of a big bipartisan crime bill. But concessions exempted 2200 firearms and required that the ban be renewed in 10 years. Ten years later, the assault weapons ban lapsed.

A bipartisan deal to revive the ban is now nonexistent, even as a small group of Republican and Democratic senators has begun an uphill effort to strike a bipartisan gun deal after massacres in New York and Texas.

“She said that she had no reason to complain—and yet regret haunted her,” Goldsmith writes. “Her regrets centered on how little she’d done compared to what she believed she could be doing. No matter what she did, she couldn’t shake the thought that she was falling short of her potential.”

You can read Marshall Goldsmith’s blog here.

About MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

Marshall Goldsmith has been recognized for years as the world’s leading executive coach and the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Mojo, and Triggers. He received his Ph.D. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. In his coaching practice, Goldsmith has advised more than 200 major CEOs and their management teams. He and his wife live in Nashville, Tennessee.

About THE EARNED LIFE

In THE EARNED LIFE (Currency Books), Marshall Goldsmith uncovers the source of today’s existential crisis: regret, the kind stemming from choices that irrevocably alter our lives, reroutes destinies, and haunts our memories—particularly timely themes as the pandemic and Great Resignation inspire people to seek meaning in their lives, get unstuck and make changes. With this book as their guide, readers can close the gap between what they plan to achieve and what they actually get done—even in a world full of inescapable unfairness and curveballs—and live an earned life too fulfilling to dwell on the “what ifs.”

If you’d like more information on Marshall Goldsmith, The Earned Life, and his work, please get in touch with Lyda Goldsmith.