Jay-Z Wants You To Live With Regrets

Word to Jay (and Brené) — own, embrace, and fully step into living with those regrets

“This is the number one rule for your set

In order to survive, gotta learn to live with regrets” — Jay-Z, “Regrets”

If you’re just tuning in, welcome. My Medium column, “What Would Hov Do?,” resolves your random problems with my pen and some invaluable bars courtesy of Hovito.

This week, we’ve got a request from someone we’re going to call “Regrets.” And “Regrets” has an important question many of us sit with regardless of where we are on our journeys:

“How does one move on in life from their past mistakes & regrets?”

Brené Brown once said, “I’ve found regret to be one of the most powerful emotional reminders that change and growth are necessary.”

Right, I know — Hov and Brené in the same piece? But the insight rings true. Far too often, I’ve heard folx lean into the notion that they “live with no regrets” or “ don’t regret anything” they’ve done in the past. Some may see regrets as an impediment to growth or being stuck in the past, and something that is no longer under our control.

But Brené, and Hov’s bars from his debut album, the classic Reasonable Doubt, are…