No Ragrets

A recent British Airways survey of 2,000 U.S. baby boomers (aged 55 and over) asked them what some of their biggest regrets in life were. Among the findings were the following:

• 17 percent of male baby boomers said working too much is one of their biggest regrets whereas just 8 percent of women said this was a regret of theirs.
• 22 percent of female respondents said not traveling enough is one of their biggest regrets when thinking back over their life so far, compared to 17 percent of men.
• 26 percent) of the respondents said it was losing contact with friends.
• 17 percent of male baby boomers said not spending enough time with their children is one of their biggest regrets when thinking back over their life so far compared to 12 percent of women.

When looking at other parts of the survey, it’s no surprise that many of them were travel related, since the survey was sponsored by British Airways. One of the funnier comments a reader posted about the survey results was the following:

And in other news, the Ford Corporation released data showing that one of people’s greatest regrets is not driving cars enough, and Red Lobster’s data shows that people regret not eating enough seafood.

But many other comments were heartfelt, with people sharing some of their biggest regrets.

I just got back from watching, with my wife and youngest son, Michael Moore’s latest movie, Where to Invade Next, and we loved it.

And not that the movie filled me with regrets, but it certainly did make me wish I knew more about other countries, and that I didn’t always assume that the U.S. was the best at everything.

There is a lot we can learn from other countries, and vice versa.

The movie also made me want to visit some of these countries, and not just for a short visit, but long enough to get to know the people and the culture.

I’d love to see firsthand the education system in Finland in action, to visit the beautiful country of Slovenia (or was it Slovakia 🙂 ) and learn more about their system of higher education, and to visit Italy and experience what a typical work day is like for its citizens.

So I hope that when I look back on my life 40 years from now, I won’t have any regrets about not having traveled enough.

Or as Scotty P. would say, “No ragrets.”