🔋Why Action Wins Over Inaction Most of the Time (ATP#26)

Almost 3 weeks ago, I quit my job. A stable, relatively secure academic job with a steady monthly paycheck. All this to become a full-time entrepreneur.

Leaving a secure job for the uncertainty of entrepreneurship sounds risky. And financially speaking, it is.

But do you know what’s riskier?

Staying in a job that doesn’t feel aligned with you. Powering through burnout and exhaustion. Counting the years until retirement.

That’s why I quit. And even though I’m facing uncertainty and the challenges of entrepreneurship now, I know it was the right decision. It’s what I had to do.

Some decisions may seem scary (this one definitely did!), but research backs me up: Taking action is often better than not taking action.

The 2 types of regret

Research indicates that regrets stemming from action and those arising from inaction are different.

If you take action and it proves to be a mistake, you may experience intense feelings of regret in the short term. But in the long run, regrets about inaction (or not doing something when you had the chance) tend to be stronger and more present in people’s minds.

An article summarizing the research on this topic reveals a clear tendency: when people are asked what they regret most in their lives or what they would do differently, most of them refer to inaction rather than actions they now regret.

The authors also surveyed 60 adults and asked them the following question:

The result: 75% indicated more regrets due to inaction than to action.

In a follow-up survey, the authors asked 30 adults to think of their greatest regret of action and their greatest regret of inaction, and then to indicate which of the two felt stronger. And for 70%, it was their regret about something they hadn’t done.

Richard Armitage, a general practitioner from Nottingham, conducted a survey in his practice for 6 months and asked elderly patients the following question:

And guess what? All of them said “no”. They only regretted the things they hadn’t done.

Armitage, who was 29 at the time, felt more regret about the things he had done and was fascinated by this difference, which he explained as follows:

“The young regret what we’ve done: a wrong decision is embarrassing, a dead-end project is frustrating, a backfired risk is infuriating. In contrast, the old regret what they haven’t done: not playing tennis before arthritis became bad, not travelling the world before tiredness set in, not learning a language before dementia took hold.”

Possible consequences of action versus inaction

Doing something or choosing not to do something are fundamentally different. But both are decisions.

If you decide to do something and it turns out to be a mistake, it stings in the moment, but you can learn from it. And most decisions aren’t final, and you can reverse them, at least to some degree (for example, if my business fails or I realize I prefer employment, I can always look for another job).

But if you choose not to act, you’ll never know what could have been. And this regret of “not taking a shot” tends to grow stronger over time.

“Could have” versus “should have”

Regrets don’t only differ between those that result from action and those that result from inaction.

Regrets resulting from inaction are especially strong and persistent if they’re related to a person’s ideal self, that is, their hopes and dreams, or something this person could have done. Regrets are weaker and less persistent if they involve not fulfilling expectations from others, or what this person should have done.

Robert Waldinger, author of the book “The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness”*, found that the #1 regret of women in their 80s was that they had relied too much on what others thought of them. It highlights the importance of taking action toward your ideal self rather than what others expect from you, or doing what you could do versus what you should do.

So, inaction is unlikely to lead to long-term regrets if it simply means living up to outside expectations, but it could lead to nagging regrets later in life if it prevents you from moving closer to your ideal self.

Wrapping up

If you have an action opportunity, you should probably take it, especially if it could bring you closer to your ideal self. If you don’t act, you’ll never know what could’ve been, and you might regret your inaction later on.

I hope this email inspires you to take action when opportunities arise!

What else I’ve been up to:

Working in a non-native language can be challenging. I notice it especially after giving a 3-hour neuroscience lecture in Spanish, when I feel like I don’t have a brain anymore! 🤣 

I wrote an article on Medium about this topic (mixed with some science), and I’m glad that the Medium editors selected this piece as one of the top 1% articles on the platform!

You can read it here (a friend link is included at the beginning so you can read it for free if you’re not a member).

That’s it for today!

And now?

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Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com.

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