On Regret

What's with everybody's fear of regret? 

I remember the first time I was rubbed the wrong way by someone in highschool talking about how they don't regret their past poor decisions. I remember thinking, "why not?". I've never been afraid to regret a choice of my own. I'm totally 100% okay with saying "I absolutely without a shadow of a doubt should not have done that and thus irrevocably regret my actions." What's so wrong with that? Why do people have beef with the fact that there are a few things in my life that I actually do regret? No, I don't regret every single thing that didn't work out according to plan. But the actual poor, self-centered, and irresponsible decisions that I have made- those I do regret. And I'm totally okay with that. 

Regret: Feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over....

Um, hello? Why wouldn't you want to feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over a shameful act that brought harm to others? 

I'm thinking people are afraid of regretting everything. Or afraid of admitting that their choices amounted to nothing but harm. So we take the healthy view of accepting that sometimes things don't go according to plan and end up working out better and apply it to things that did not go according to plan cause we had no plan other than immediate gratification and now have a mess to clean up. I think it's pride that keeps people from simply admitting that a particular choice of theirs was not one where the former applies... not one that worked out better than planned.... It's pride that keeps a person from admitting that their choice was simply irresponsible, harmful, unwise, self-centered, and one in which they feel sad, repentant, and disappointed in themselves for. There is nothing wrong with that! We are human. It's going to happen. If a person seems void of regret, does it not imply they think they are above failure?

Humanity astounds me.