Tuesday, January 26, 2010

About Regret


When you look at your life, what you are and what you aren’t; it’s more likely than not that you’ll regret something you didn’t do than some mistake you made. You’ll learn from a mistake, you’ll grow from it, and hopefully next time you won’t make the exact same one.
But what about the little life lessons we let slip by? What about all the times we “played it safe” and didn’t come out smarter or better for doing something different?

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from
the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover.
by Mark Twain

And if we look back, we may regret a silly mistake, but at least we made the decision to do something out of our comfort zone, out of the norm, out of whatever our mothers told us was acceptable behavior. We learned, we grew, and we became the people we are meant to be because of those split second decisions to defy our own “good” judgement.
I for one have missed out on things I know I’ll never again have the chance to do because I didn’t think it wise. And now, after looking at where I am and where I’ve been, I see that although it was best for me to have said no sometimes, I may have benefited more if I had just said yes. Even if only once in a while.

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