Can you change a bad decision made 20 years ago?

We all make bad decisions. I use to spend a lot of time thinking and wishing that I hadn't made some of the decisions that I made. Maybe you understand exactly what I mean. I wasn't full of regret, I just really wished that I could go back and reverse some decisions or actions. And yet, I was finally able to do it after figuring out how to do it.
We can't really go back in time. But we can effect the emotional outcome of a bad decision. A few years ago, I started thinking about a friend of mine in junior high school and high school. We were close friends, but we got involved with different groups of friends, and wound up treating each other like strangers. Whats more remarkable is that while we were close friends, things were going very well for me. After we were no longer friends, it created a lot of awkward accidental encounters. After 18 years, I tracked my friend down, and over lunch, I apologized for the way things were. I expressed how I felt, and how I regretted that we weren't friends. He said he felt the same way. I immediately felt relieved, and felt free of that bad decision.
Here's another example: I always regretted some of the decisions I made in high school about organizations I did not join, colleges I did not apply to, etc. I recently actually gave advice to some high school students (from my high school) to help them avoid the pitfalls of my own student career. It did wonders for me. The next day I woke up feeling that I actually never made those decisions. It felt great. By helping others, I helped myself.
The other way to do this, is to give yourself some slack. Accept that you're human, and don't be hard on yourself. The rest of the world is already hard on us, why ad to your own burdens. Sometimes you have to forgive yourself, and find a positive in the bad decision. There's always one.
The key is to find people that helped you along the way, that provided something positive, or that you were close to during the good times of your life. That's what you need more of. You don't really need to find anyone that was negative or was around you when things were not going well. I can't put my finger on it, but its a combination of the right people that we need to surround ourselves with in order for things to change and go in the right direction. Some people can just add to your good fortune, while others will subtract. We often don't know who's who.

1%

I wake up every day believing that today I will do one thing to move closer to my goals. Just one thing. I will add 1% effort toward moving closer to my goals. A friend of mine has seen me struggle and face near bankruptcy and complete failure in the past years. The entire time, this friend kept suggesting that I close up and quit. He suggested that I should cut my losses and go find a job. That's not who I am as a person. If were to have quit and go get a job, I would not only admit that I couldn't make it business, but I would move in the direction of more unhappiness. Its a double whammy.
Who are you as a person? What lengths would you go to in order to succeed or to get to your goals? What do you believe is your destiny? Are you doing everything you can to get to your destiny? Most people I know start, and then get discouraged. Life can be discouraging. If you stop and thought about all the situations that did not go your way, you would get pretty depressed. I'm not allowed to do that. I don't allow myself to focus on my failures or my rejections. I make an effort to reminisce about the times I have succeed, or the times that I overcame insurmountable odds.
We have the power to wallow in the mire of self-doubt. We also have the power to dream about a being wealthy, happy, and secure. Its a choice. And it takes effort. A person can easily slip into confusion or depression by thinking about their shortcomings. We all have shortcomings, whats the point in reminding ourselves about this?
In 2004, I had the hardest year of my life financially. I went 8 months without any income, having just started my real estate office. At the end of year, I was prepared to evaluate and close up if I felt in my heart that I couldn't make it work. Instead, I asked my self, what do I need in order to make this work? I then went out and hired more agents, and re-tooled my strategy. The following year, I made more money that I ever made my entire life. And the year after that was even better. Thank goodness I gave it more time. It worked out. I had to do some tweaking, but it worked out great.
What kind of a person are you? Have you ever been tested? Have you ever looked in the mirror and forgotten who you are and where you've come from? Do you spend 30 minutes a day thinking about all the good things in your life, and how close you are to where you want to be? Sometimes, with a minor adjustment in your strategy or thought process, you can get to your destination, just a little closer to you destination. I think about throwing a pebble in the Hudson River. What if I threw a pebble in the same location every day? Sooner or later I would start to change the course of the river. 1% every day is my pebble.