Have you ever asked someone the question, “what’s important to you?”  

Or what do you value?

Or what do you want?  

Or what are your goals?  

It’s a really open-ended question.  

And it’s one that’s often really difficult to answer off the cuff.  

So I’ve just finished reading an amazing book by Daniel Pink, or Dan Pink as he goes by, called The Power of Regret. 

And just amazing, because I love in particular, how he reframes regret, which often we think of as, it’s not good.  

It’s the anti, kind of how do you live life without regrets. 

But what he shares in the book, and you’ve got to read the book to get all the detail, but the summary is, how can you use regrets to help pinpoint or guide you to what are the things that you value. 

To what are the things that are important? 

And throughout the book shares, some of the big things that have happened, but also some of the little things.  

And it’s really funny because just recently, I was doing a keynote in Hamilton Island at a financial planning conference.  

And when I got up there a couple of days early, but my luggage decided to have an overnight stay in Sydney.  

I wasn’t in Sydney, I was in Hamilton Island. 

My luggage had a 24 hour overnight stay.  

And what’s really funny is normally I have my makeup purse in my handbag with me.  

But this trip, I didn’t. 

I actually packed it into my checked luggage.  

So I end up at this conference in Hamilton Island, ready to do my keynote, which wasn’t for a couple of days, so I did buy some time.  

But with nothing other than my laptop, my laptop charger, and my phone charger.  

And I mean nothing else, oh other than the clothes on my back.  

So it was funny because I remember it was 4am on the Monday morning before I was about to get myself off to the airport to get the flight.  

And I had my makeup purse in my hands, which as I said normally goes in my handbag.  

And at the last minute, I thought I’ll just put it into my checked luggage, just one less thing for me to carry.  

And you know they’ve got such tight weight limits on any baggage that you do take on the plane with you.  

Now, that’s a regret, right?  

I regret not putting my essentials, in my handbag with me.  

It’s only a small regret.  

But I’ll tell you what, gee, I value it. 

Because 24 hours without all of the things that I needed on me, it certainly gave me a lot of humility, and it made me get really creative with how I was to get through those 24 hours and face up at a public event.  

But what are some of the regrets that you’ve had?  

Or what are some of the regrets that your clients have had?  

Big or small?  

Because what they do is they point you to, and guide you to uncover what someone really values.  

What are things that are really important to them.  

Maybe it’s the way that you spoke to someone, maybe it’s the way that you didn’t respond to something in a timely manner, whatever it might be. 

Versus those really big things like you know, not putting your hand up and asking for the promotion or not taking the trip overseas when you could have. 

There’s a whole lot I don’t ever need to start going down that path.  

But have a reframe of regrets as yeh, there are some things that you might change, or you wish you changed.  

But how can you look at it through the lens of how does that help guide and direct me to what is important and what I value? 

Or do the same thing for your clients  

See how you go. 

Because after all, You are Valuable!