regret

the protagonist in nick hornby’s novel how to be good has this to say about regret:

The trick, it seems to me, is to stave off regret. That’s what the whole thing is about. And we can’t stave it off forever, because it is impossible not to make the mistakes that let regret in, but the best of us manage to limp into our sixties or seventies before we succomb. Me, I made it to about thirty-seven . . . And I’m not sure that there is a cure for regret, I suspect not.

i must confess that i do not know any of these “best of us” that are mentioned in the excerpt above. i was 25 years old when i experienced a sense of regret i could not “stave off,” and since that time there have been many more regrets, and i have not found a way to stave off any of them.

have you been able to stave off your regrets? if so, how? please tell me. is there a cure?