The Japanese art of kintsugi repairs broken pottery with gold lacquer, making the cracks more beautiful than the original. This is how we should treat regrets - not as failures but as gilded lessons. Behavioral economists note that regret influences future decisions more than logic. A Columbia University study found people who wrote "failure CVs" listing their regrets became 27% more likely to take smart risks. The process works like this: 1) Acknowledge the regret without judgment 2) Extract the lesson 3) Apply it to new situations. Regret only becomes toxic when we ruminate without growth. The healthiest people don't lack regrets - they've learned to compost them into fertilizer for wisdom.