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The Mel Robbins Podcast · May 25, 2026 · 1h 9m

What Makes a Good Life? This Study on 26,000 Regrets Will Guide You for the Rest of Your Life

Daniel Pink
Show Notes

Mel Robbins sits down with Daniel Pink, who conducted the World Regret Survey, the largest study of human regret ever, analyzing 26,000 regrets from 134 countries. Pink explains why inaction regrets—the things we didn't do—haunt us far more than mistakes we made, and he shares a 3-step reset to break regret cycles. The conversation aims to turn regret into a tool for clarifying what matters most and taking action to avoid future regrets.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Canon

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Inaction regrets dominate
Daniel Pink's survey of 26,000 regrets from 134 countries found that things people didn’t do haunt them far more than things they did.
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Highlights

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Four core types of regret
Pink identifies four distinct core categories of regret after analyzing tens of thousands of stories.
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3-step reset to break regret cycles
Daniel Pink offers a three-step reset process to stop repeating the same patterns and move forward.
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References

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The Power of Regret — Daniel H. Pink (2022) — discusses findings from the World Regret Survey

Misc

✧Mel recommends her earlier episode on the Cornell Legacy Project as a follow-up.
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