How To Handle The Burden of Choices

This post is inspired by the following dialogues from a latest Netflix Web-series "The Better Sister:" "You bear the burden of your choices and you move on because sitting still will kill you."

Being an avid reader of printed books - for some reasons, I don't like digital reading - never, I had to regret that choice and that brings into limelight the importance choices we make through out our lives. 

There is no right or wrong choice at the time of making the decision about what's your choice. It depends on several factors, most of those are beyond our abilities to grasp the larger picture about the consequences of the same.

Bearing the burden of your own choices and still living happily is one of the most profound challenges—and also one of the most liberating achievements—in life. 

Here are my suggestions:

1. Accept Full Responsibility

Owning your choices gives you back your power. Don’t blame others, fate, or circumstances. You chose—and that means you can choose again. Say to yourself: "I made this decision, and I will deal with the consequences." Freedom begins where blame ends.

2. Forgive Yourself for Not Knowing Better

We all make choices with the wisdom we have at the time. You didn’t have perfect foresight, and that’s okay. Mistakes are part of becoming wiser, not proof of failure. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou

3. Find the Meaning in the Pain

Pain without purpose feels like punishment; pain with purpose fuels growth. What did this choice teach you about life, people, or yourself? Can this experience help someone else if you share it? Viktor Frankl said: “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear almost any ‘how.’”

4. Turn Regret into Responsibility

Regret is just energy—redirect it toward something useful. You can’t undo the past, but you can shape what happens next. Use the lesson to make better choices moving forward. Don't let regret chain you to the past—let it be the compass that guides your future.

5. Redefine Happiness

If you tie happiness to “no mistakes,” you’ll never be happy. Happiness isn’t about perfection; it’s about peace with imperfection. It’s not about always choosing right—it’s about choosing to grow, regardless. Contentment comes when you stop punishing yourself for being human.

6. Practice Present-Minded Living

Dwelling on past choices keeps you trapped in a moment that no longer exists. Stay grounded in today. What can you do now? Let each small good decision be a way to redeem a bigger past one. “Yesterday is heavy. Put it down.”

7. Build a Life That Makes Peace With the Past

You don’t have to forget your choices—you just have to build something meaningful with them. Relationships, purpose-driven work, self-care—all these can become bricks in a new foundation.

You are not the sum of your choices—you are the sum of what you do with them.

Image by Kingrise from Pixabay

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