Why Giving Your Best Erases Regret
Created at: October 2, 2025
Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. — George Halas
The Promise Behind Halas’s Claim
George Halas’s assertion points to a simple but demanding bargain: if you offer your full effort, you’ll be spared the corrosive doubt that follows half-measures. Regret rarely attaches to honest exertion; it clings to the energy we withhold and the chances we never take. Here, “best” doesn’t mean perfection or guaranteed victory—it means a wholehearted process aligned with your values. By shifting attention from outcome to integrity of effort, Halas reframes winning as a state of character, not merely a scoreline.
Lessons from the Gridiron
The claim gains texture in Halas’s own arena. As the Chicago Bears’ architect and long-time coach, he innovated with the T-formation and demanded relentless preparation; NFL Films profiles recount the 73–0 title rout in 1940 and the gritty 1963 championship as products of discipline as much as talent. Players could not control weather, bounces, or injuries, but they could control hustle, blocking angles, and pursuit. When a team empties the tank, Monday’s film session becomes evaluation rather than self-reproach—a distinction Halas cultivated across decades.
How Regret Works in Psychology
Research helps explain why full effort shields us. Thomas Gilovich and Victoria Medvec (1995) found that, over time, people regret inactions more than actions. Offering your best shrinks that gap by converting “what if” into evidence. Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) adds that regret spikes when we fall short of our “ideal” self; vigorous effort narrows that distance. At life’s horizon, Bronnie Ware’s The Top Five Regrets of the Dying (2012) lists not having the courage to live true to oneself as a dominant lament. Even Jeff Bezos’s “regret-minimization framework” (1994) echoes Halas: choose the path that, at 80, you won’t wish you had tried.
Motivation and Mastery
If regret is reduced by effort, what sustains effort? Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) argues that autonomy, competence, and relatedness energize persistence. When we choose goals, experience progress, and belong to a team, we keep showing up. Carol Dweck’s Mindset (2006) similarly finds that a focus on learning over proving—praising process, not just outcome—builds resilient striving. Thus, giving your best is not brutal heroics; it is a practice structured around meaningful choice, skill growth, and supportive communities, which together make effort intrinsically rewarding.
Craft and the Creative Life
The arts reveal the same logic. Ernest Hemingway told The Paris Review (1958) he rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms 39 times “to get the words right.” Beethoven’s sketchbooks show tireless revision, turning inspiration into architecture. Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. (2014) describes Pixar’s “Braintrust,” where candid drafts and iterations convert early misfires into finished films. In each case, outcomes remained uncertain, but exhaustive craftsmanship insulated creators from self-reproach; the record of effort became its own proof of dignity.
The Ethical Core of Trying
Philosophy frames effort as virtue. Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations urges attention to what we control—intent and action—while releasing outcomes. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics defines eudaimonia as activity in accord with excellence; the stress is on doing, not merely possessing talent. Giving one’s best therefore becomes an ethical stance: it honors the role we can play and respects others affected by our work. Regret fades because we have acted in good faith, meeting duty with courage even when results stay ambiguous.
Making “Your Best” Sustainable
Finally, Halas’s credo thrives with guardrails. Anders Ericsson’s research on deliberate practice (Peak, 2016) shows that quality beats grind; focused work, feedback, and rest improve performance while preventing burnout. Athletes periodize training to peak and recover (Bompa, 1999), and teams run “pre-mortems” to surface risks in advance (Gary Klein, 2007). Day to day, a controllables scoreboard—effort, preparation, attitude—keeps attention where agency lives. Done this way, giving your best is not reckless overreach; it is disciplined devotion that, win or lose, leaves nothing to regret.