Regret isn't a trap. Used properly, it's the most precise compass you have.

Key theme: Reframing regret as a forward-looking design tool — and the Regret Audit exercise.

We're not supposed to have regrets. The culturally approved position is: no regrets, own your choices, move on. I want to challenge that — quite fundamentally.

The research on what people regret most at the end of their lives is consistent and sobering: it's almost never the risks they took. It's the paths not taken. The work not started. The version of themselves they kept postponing.

In this episode I make the case that regret — properly understood and used prospectively — is one of the most powerful design tools available to you. I introduce the Regret Audit: a simple but searching exercise that uses your eighty-five year old self as an advisor. She has the perspective you currently lack. And when you consult her honestly, she tends to cut through all the noise very quickly.

The regrets we talk about in this episode are not yours yet. They are futures you still have the power to prevent. Every day you make a conscious choice to begin something, you are removing one from the pile.

CTA: Try the Regret Audit using the free Five Conversations journal at bestbeyond50.co.uk. Share this episode with a woman who needs to hear it.