Foreword

YOU’RE ABOUT TO take a journey: thirty engaging and memorable brief stories will trigger insight into the choices you’ve made in your life. Not bad choices, not good choices—just choices. Choices that look a little different with the addition of time. Choices that may have caused you to judge yourself and wonder if a different choice would have been better. It’s so easy to become self-critical, second-guess our decisions, and agonize over how we’d do things differently if only we could do them over again. What we need is a way to avoid this trap of regret. This is exactly what Marc’s book No More Regrets! offers, and it has personally helped me recognize the importance of getting rid of regret in my life.

For the last thirty-nine years, I have worked as a teacher, coach, and consultant. While this has brought me much joy and success, I have felt the negative power of regret first-hand. For example, early in my career I was asked to step in as the coach of an aspiring high school tennis team when a colleague of mine suffered a fatal heart attack. We made it to the championship but we lost in the finals, which is an episode I often revisit. I wonder if those young athletes would have won the title if I had made better decisions as the coach. I also think about how, as a young dad, I made some impulsive parenting decisions that fell short of what I expected of myself. In addition, not taking a strong stand on my personal values eventually jeopardized a relationship with my business partner, whom I truly cared about. Each of these experiences left me feeling like a victim of regret and for a period of time interfered with my self-confidence as well as my ability to continue to learn and grow and be the difference maker I wanted to be.

After reading just a few chapters of No More Regrets!, I was struck by a revelation: there is actually a way to avoid regrets. Remember those times when the light bulb went on in your head and all of a sudden you “got it”? That is the experience I had when I read this book. It became clearer to me that while we all have regrets, we are capable of moving past them and putting an end to regret in the future. Personal integrity in my actions and in my decision making will never be easy, but it’s possible and ultimately a choice that I have the power to make. If I can learn to live the values I say I profess, I will still make mistakes but I will have no more regrets. I encourage you to reread this book many times as I have and share it with your friends, family, and coworkers. Enjoy the journey.

TOM CHAMPOUX
Founder and President, The Effectiveness Institute