There are lot's of mistakes I've made that I regret and lot's that have made me stronger. People need to know that you have to make mistakes in order to improve.

However, I think that looking back if I had to pick out one mistake it would not be doing Physics at school. I would love to have done Physics at A-level/University.

I chose Biology and Chemistry for my A-levels as at the time they were my favorite sciences, never really being interested in Physics. However, after my A-levels I decided to start reading about physics more and I found I really enjoyed it. I reckon if I'd of took Physics at A-Level I would have gone on to do it at University and I would have been far happier to studying it.

Besides, who's to say that by "zigging when you should've zagged", you won't make things worse? For example:

Buying a different sandwich = hit by a car on the way home

not masturbating = AIDS

So? Who are you - Buddha? Jesus? What's so special about this 'version' of you and your life?

I think there's no rational thinking behind this strong feeling people have about not regretting their actions or mistakes. I believe it's some sort of a psychological defense mechanism, part of our survival instinct. But mainly it reflects our huge vanity and pride! Humans are truly selfish and self-centered.

And apparently it's such a strong intellectual barrier that people are not even able to imagine better scenarios for themselves (or for others for that matter, for people they may have hurt).

No you don't. That's a romanticized myth.

Very successful people have a history of making very few mistakes.

Nope, would not change a thing in my life.

Just learning to learn from the mistakes and taking responsibility for those mistakes make me feel as though I'm growing, if that makes any sense.

Slimebeast, your posts intrigue me.

I'd say you should keep that one.  If you hadn't had those crashes that stopped your arrogant winter driving, you could have gotten into an accident that crippled you or even killed you.  (I'm assuming you weren't crippled.) 

I'd definitely change a few things, even knowing that I wouldn't be quite the same person.  I'd take my my first year of college more seriously -- and while I was at it go to a different college. 

No it's not.

There are plenty of times I've made a mistake and it has taught me a valuable lesson. If a kid who's climbing a tree falls out of it and breaks their arm, the likelihood is that they wont want to make the same mistake again. They will be much more careful.

I have a big situation from my life where my mistake has made me a much better person.

At university in my first year for one of my modules I had a report to write, it was worth 10% of the module grade. In my naive foolishness I decided that 10% wasn't worth the effort and so I didn't do it. A few weeks later my lecturer asked me why I hadn't handed it in and I told him that I was busy and sacrificed one report and I chose his to sacrifice. Big mistake. He went apeshit and said that if that was my attitude I might as well leave university now because it was a fast way to achieve failure.

Do you think I ever skipped a report or missed a deadline again? No, of course I haven't.

Quite the opposite actually, I think from that moment on I made sure that I gave every piece of work my best effort and made sure that for the most part they were finished at least a week in advance. To be honest if I was let off for not handing that report in, I wouldn't have achieved such a good degree at university and I wouldn't be doing my Masters and I wouldn't be going on to do a PhD.

I learned from that mistake big time and I'm a better person for it.

...

Conversely, there are plenty of mistakes I wish I haven't made too because I haven't particularly benefited from them in any way whatsoever. That was my point, you make some that you have learned from and you make some that you haven't. It's true.

How come?

I think I agree with you (have to read your post first though lol).

I was nitpicking about how u wrote it, as you said 'People need to know that you have to make mistakes in order to improve."

I should have greened it and u would have saved 2 minutes of your life.