Once Burned, Twice Wise: 30 Women Over 30 Share Their Hardest Life Lessons

The discussion went viral very quickly. At the time of writing, April’s post on Threads had 10k likes, over 3.1k comments, and over 785 reshares. The author said that she was surprised by how “this blew up overnight.” She said she was “overwhelmed with the responses” and promised to read through every single person’s replies.

Bored Panda has reached out to April, and we’ll update our article once we hear back from her.

As a rule of thumb, people tend to regret the things they didn’t do rather than the mistakes they’ve made. Whatever you choose to do for work or school, there are a few non-negotiables that everyone should prioritize—your social life, health, and fitness. And they form a solid foundation that you can rely on to make the most of life. When you have a strong social circle that supports you and you’re physically and mentally fit, you can take advantage of more opportunities, bouncing back quicker after any defeats.

After decades and decades of research, scientists at Harvard found that it’s your positive relationships that make you happier, healthier, and help you live longer—not exercise, healthy eating, money, or your career achievements.

That’s not to say that looking after your health isn’t important (it is!) or that you shouldn’t budget, save, and invest (you should!), but simply that your social fitness is extremely valuable.

In short, when you consistently invest in maintaining meaningful relationships and minimize interactions with negative people, you become more resilient to stress.

Dr. Robert Waldinger, the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, noted that there is a strong association between happiness and close relationships with spouses, family, friends, and social circles.

“Personal connection creates mental and emotional stimulation, which are automatic mood boosters, while isolation is a mood buster.”

Meanwhile, when it comes to your health, aim to sleep between 7 and 8 hours every night, drink 2 to 3 liters of water daily, and aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.

The CDC also recommends that adults need at least 2 days of muscle-strengthening activity each week.

What you don’t do also matters. You should avoid drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating ultra-processed foods.

No matter who you are, the clearer you are about your values and goals in life, the easier it is for you to make better decisions. On the flip side, if you don’t know what you want or what you stand for, you’re likely to go with the flow and end up in situations that might not be optimal.

For instance, if you theoretically value your family and time with loved ones but barely find any time for them due to your work, you need to either prioritize your relationships again or be honest with yourself about the importance of your financial and career goals.

Of course, it’s impossible to perfectly ‘optimize’ your life, and you’ll end up making mistakes either way. But if you see failure as a learning opportunity, you can pivot toward where you want to go instead of beating yourself up over having stumbled a bit. Newsflash—everyone, absolutely everyone, messes up sooner or later.

It’s healthiest to embrace what’s happened and move on. Otherwise, you’ll end up feeling guilty and haunted by your past every step of the way.

Doing things ‘well enough’ instead of ‘perfectly’ can leave you with more time, energy, and resources for other endeavors so you can enjoy yourself. Sometimes, trying to get the best possible outcome in every area of your life is, paradoxically, worse for you because you’ll end up exhausted. This approach, called ‘satisficing,’ is a decision-making strategy where you aim for satisfactory results rather than optimal solutions. And it's something that not only companies and managers do, but regular people can also apply to their lives to get good results without burning out. You can apply this when it comes to your finances, career, fitness, relationships, and, well, anything else you care about.

“Instead of putting maximum exertion toward attaining the ideal outcome, satisficing focuses on pragmatic effort when confronted with tasks. This is because aiming for the optimal solution may necessitate a needless expenditure of time, energy, and resources,” Investopedia explains.

Satisficing, as a decision-making process, was a term first coined in 1956 by US scientist and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon. The general idea is that consumers facing a large number of choices will opt for something that is ‘good enough’ and that satisfies their main minimum needs instead of wasting too much time and energy on looking for what might objectively be the ‘best.’

However, satisficing, as a process, isn’t bulletproof. It’s not quite clear what a satisfactory result entails exactly. It’s also not clear how the end result differs from pursuing an optimal outcome. But broadly speaking, satisficers have an internal threshold in their minds that, once met, makes them choose something. Meanwhile, maximizers conduct an exhaustive search of options at a bigger cost.

When applied to your relationships, health, career, etc., satisficing can motivate you to invest in what’s necessary without waiting for the ‘perfect’ moment to do so. Doing even a bit of a good thing is far better than doing nothing, after all.

What are the biggest mistakes you’ve made in life that you hope others don’t repeat? What life advice or safety tips would you give total strangers or even yourself if you could travel back in time?

What healthy habits do you personally think are the most vital for anyone to have? Let us know what you think!