Eggs in a carton with faces drawn by a marker. One shows signs of worry.

Regret and Worry don’t mean a Lesson is Learnt

There is a big difference between learning from a situation and worrying about it.

Worrying is an emotion that comes up when things don’t go ones way and they’re scared about the impending outcome of their decisions or actions. It is not the same as learning from those actions. At times people mistakenly assume that if someone has shown some tears it means they have learnt and will act differently in the future. This is a huge mistake.

Learning happens when one accepts the results of their actions. Reviews those actions to uncover why they led to the undesirable outcomes and the mechanics behind why they chose to perform the actions. Then from an understanding of those dynamics plan how to address the deficiencies uncovered to ensure they are able to perform in the future. Learning concludes when an individual is able to avoid the same catastrophic results in a similar future scenario by applying the solutions that where developed from the last failed attempt.

Just because one shows signs of worry or regret does not mean they have learnt. It does show they are not happy with the outcomes of their action and can act as a starting point of the learning process. Just don’t confuse the regret one shows for a situation to them having learnt from their actions.