“Regrets, I’ve had a few…”

When, on an oldies radio station, I recently heard these words from Frank Sinatra’s hit song, “My Way,” immediately I thought of a conversation two friends and I had over lunch a few months ago.

“I’ve made so many mistakes in my life,” one woman bemoaned. “If only I’d have known back then what I know now.”

We agreed with her, jumping in to outdo each other with all the bad choices we, too, had made when we were “young and dumb,” as one friend put it.

From marrying the wrong man to dropping out of school to choosing an unsatisfactory career path, the regrets among the three of us piled up faster than the dirty dishes.

Now in our 60s, we consider ourselves older and wiser.

But when we’re in our 80s and presumably older and wiser than we think we are today, what will we say about the choices we’re making now?

And do our regrets about the past even matter?

What is to be gained by dwelling on them?

The happiest older adults, according to studies, are those who can leave the past in the past and move forward.

We cannot go back and change the mistakes we made, but we can learn from them, rise above them and make the most of our lives now and in the years yet to come.

Because our time is getting shorter, we should be focusing on what matters most now, such as relationships and an active lifestyle, rather than on the what-ifs of our youth.

Really, we have no idea what unexpected turns our lives would have taken if we had made different choices when we were younger.

Maybe we just would have different regrets today.

All lives are fraught with some calamities beyond our control. Terrible things happen to us.

Worrying about them before (if ever) they occur or after they have happened does not make them disappear. It just wastes our precious time.

All of us grow older, but apparently some of us never grow up.

I once heard maturity defined as being able to live with the decisions we make and not second-guess or abuse ourselves wondering if we should have done something else.

To be satisfied with our lives as we age, we have to accept our inevitable mistakes and losses and move on.

Clinging to negative memories from our past makes us less happy in the present.

All of us, I am sure, know at least one adult who continues to blame his or her parents and a rotten childhood for everything negative that has happened through the years.

We need to get over it and take responsibility for our decisions and actions and their consequences.

These folks who are stuck in the past, as well as the rest of us, will suffer less if we develop the ability to roll with the punches and keep a sense of humor.

Life is not easy. It comes with no guarantees.

But if we are open to new possibilities as we grow older and if we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we can make wiser decisions today that will enhance the quality of life we have remaining.

No matter what our advancing age, we may have more mileage left than we think.

Let’s make it a good ride.