1. Choosing a job based on compensation alone

1. 仅根据薪水选工作

Remedy: Make a budget. If you don’t know how much money you need to live the lifestyle you feel comfortable with, you can’t accurately¹ project whether switching jobs for a $10K pay bump is actually a good deal. Making a pros² and cons³ list when comparing your current job with a new opportunity is also helpful. If the only advantage a job offers is a bigger pay check, you can weigh that against longer hours, a more onerous⁴ commute⁵ and increased reporting responsibilities. Keep in mind that research shows that increases in happiness based on earnings⁶ peak at about $75K. Incomes above this level don’t increase your feeling of well-being⁷ on a day-to-day basis. So, if you think a jump up to $85 or $90K will make you feel less morose⁸ when your alarm goes off, you might want to look at addressing some of the non-monetary factors in your life that are contributing to your dissatisfaction.

补救办法： 做预算。 如果你不能估算需要多少钱才能过上令你感到舒适的生活，你就无法确切地知道为了1万美元薪水而换工作是否真的划算。在比较新、旧工作时，列出各自的优缺点，这会对你很有帮助。如果新工作只是薪水更高一点，那么你可以比较下这个工作是否要求更长的工作时间和完成更多的工作任务。请记住，调查表明：年收入在7.5万美元以内，幸福感会随着薪水的增加而增加，但是一旦薪水超过这个水平，幸福感的增加便不再明显。因此，如果你认为薪水增加到8.5万或9万美元会使你更加快乐，这时你或许应该着手解决生活中那些与金钱无关而引起的不快乐。

2. Staying too long in a job that you want to leave

2. 在原来工作岗位上呆太久了

Remedy: The tricky⁹ aspect of this regret is that it’s typically rooted in hindsight. Only after you’ve left the job and have moved on to something better, do you start beating yourself up for not making the leap sooner, even if it hadn’t been practical or possible. What you can do is to identify the factors that kept you in your former position as red flags to be aware of in the future and work to line up supports that will allow you to more quickly capitalize on other opportunities as they may present themselves. This could include reviewing and updating your resume with new accomplishments¹⁰ on a monthly or quarterly basis, keeping your LinkedIn account current, building up a contingency¹¹ fund to allow you to feel less tethered to your current pay check and staying in the loop on industry news and gossip to be aware of where your skills and experience could be of value.

补救办法：这种遗憾的棘手之处在于，它通常是后知后觉的。只有在你已经离开这个岗位并找到了更好的工作之后，你才会开始后悔为什么没有早点跳槽，即使这原本是不切实际的想法。你能做的就是找到使你留在这个岗位的理由，作为以后提醒自己的信号。另外，你还要通过各种途径使自己可以在机遇出现的时候能够快速抓住它，比如你可以按月或按季度重新审视自己并用新的成果来更新你的简历；同步更新在LinkedIn上的信息；准备应急资金以减轻你对当前工作的依赖；了解业内最新消息，以便知道自己可以在哪里大展拳脚。

3. Not starting your own business

3. 没有开始创业

Remedy: While the idea of being your own boss is an attractive one, not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Being responsible for your own success, creating a legacy¹² for your family and improving the lives of clients and customers certainly sounds romantic, but what about the long hours, the lack of leisure time, the risk of financial failure, the fact that you’re the boss, entry-level employee, marketer, accountant and janitor¹³ all rolled into one? If you value job stability, prefer a singular focus over multi-tasking, aren’t particularly comfortable with risk and can’t imagine yourself hustling¹⁴ for new business on a daily basis, the entrepreneurial lifestyle isn’t for you.

补救办法：虽然自己当老板的想法很诱人，但并不是每个人都适合创业。创造属于自己的事业，让家人过上幸福生活，改善顾客的生活，这些听起来肯定很浪漫，但漫长的工作时间、没有闲暇时间、承担资金风险，身兼老板、职员、营销人员、会计和门卫等多个职位于一身，这些你能承受吗？如果你喜欢稳定的工作和专注于某项具体任务而不是身兼多职，又或者你不喜欢冒险，你就无法想象整天为工作忙碌的生活。如果你属于以上情况，那么创业并不适合你。

4. Slacking at school

4. 学业没有学好

Remedy: This is another hindsight-based regret that you can’t cure without a time machine. The years, energy and dollars you spent on your degree are sunk costs. You can’t do anything about your past academic track record, but you can identify the areas in which you think you fell short in your college days and figure out how to augment¹⁵ those shortcomings in the present. For example, if you feel you didn’t do enough networking outside of the classroom, you might consider joining an alumni group or make a greater effort to participate in professional associations in your field. If you regret skipping your 8:00 AM managerial accounting¹⁶ class and mourn how useful those concepts would be to you now, check out the continuing ed options at your nearest community college.

补救办法：这也是一个后知后觉的遗憾，没有时间机器是无法解决的。你在学业上花费的时间、精力和金钱是既定成本。你无法改变以前的学业情况，但可以找出自己在大学期间没有学好的课程，然后想办法从现在开始弥补。例如，如果你觉得自己在课堂外的社交有所不足，你可以考虑加入校友协会，或者努力地融入到你所在领域的行业协会。如果你后悔错过了早上八点钟的管理会计课程，悲叹这些知识现在对你多么重要，那么你可以看看附近社区大学的这类课程。

5. Lacking confidence in your career intuition

5. 对自己的职业直觉缺乏信心

Remedy: When we make a major decision such as accepting (or turning down) a job offer, we tend to exercise confirmation¹⁷ bias¹⁸. If we think we made a good choice, we prioritize information that supports this view and if we fear we’ve made a mistake, we zero in on intel or impressions that reinforce this gut¹⁹ feeling. If you habitually²⁰ doubt your competence²¹ when it comes to making career decisions, the issue is less about the subjective²² quality of your past choices and more about building confidence in your ability to guide your career in a satisfying direction and exert some degree of control over the outcomes of your choices. Addressing this could involve recalling the circumstances under which you made a particular choice and the priorities you held at the time and noting how they differ from the circumstances and priorities under which you’re evaluating those decisions. It could also involve working with a career coach to identify patterns in your decision-making and to help you bolster²³ areas in which you’d like to increase your confidence – risk taking or negotiation²⁴, for example.

补救办法：当我们在做出重大决定时，例如接受（或拒绝）工作邀请时，我们往往会受到信息性偏见的影响。如果我们认为自己做出了正确的选择，就首先会想到那些支持这种想法的信息。但如果我们担心自己犯了错误，我们的潜意识就会增强这种直觉。在做出工作的决定时，如果你习惯性地怀疑自己的能力，这个问题不在于你以前所做的职业选择是否正确，而在于你需要建立自信，相信自己有能力选择让自己满意的职业，并对结果有一定的把握。若要解决这个问题，需要回忆你在做出这个选择时所处的环境和当时你所优先考虑的因素，然后看看现在所处的环境和优先考虑的因素是否发生了变化。此外还要与职业顾问合作，理清工作决策，帮助你增强进入新领域的信心、承担风险和谈判的能力。