Why live with regrets? We want to live the life of our dreams but, we don’t. We live with regrets. We live with not trying. We live with never going quite as hard as we should have gone. We live by telling the stories of what we want to do and what we wanted to do over what we have done. What we planned to do and how we completed it should be the narrative. Doing what we planned isn’t the life most of us live. We set our sights on the hugest goals. We let the size of those goals scare us. We also let the accomplishment of others doing it first stop us from going ahead and trying to do what we want to do. The success of others does not have anything to do with our success. Their failure has nothing to do with our failure or the possibility of it. I guess the regret thing is better than the hard work, doubt, and stress, leading to a breakthrough, huh? We never get to that point because we’re so comfortable living with regrets.
How many times have we sat back and heard the story of someone wishing they would have done this and stating they would have done that? Sometimes, we’re the narrator of that story. Sadly, it’s our own story we tell. We talk about how we could have done this. Maybe, we should have done that but, for some reason, we didn’t. We never really discuss the “why we didn’t do it” part. We discuss the “how we should have done it” piece. This omission enables us to tell the story without hurting too much. It allows us to tell a story as if we aren’t the main reason it didn’t happen. We explain as if we wanted it to happen and didn’t want it to happen. We tell the story of us deciding that we wouldn’t succeed at exactly what it was we wanted. Somehow, we pull that off but deep down inside is the truth. We know the deal. We know that we did something wrong. We regret it wholeheartedly.
How can we dodge this deep, dark, dirty feeling of regret? It’s as simple as getting out there. It’s as simple as being open to failure. It’s as simple as being open to hurt, pain, and questioning yourself. It is worth it because trying trumps the pain of never doing so. We can use fear to our advantage by fearing being the older person telling the story of how our dreams didn’t happen. That’s the scariest story that I can think of experiencing. If that doesn’t work, we can use living on the opposite side of our dream. We can see our self watching that movie instead of starring in it. Listening to that album instead of creating it. Admiring that painting instead of painting it. Maybe seeing the admiration of someone who’s doing what your dream is at a B- level and receiving A+ attention would do it. Whatever will do it, make sure you envision it. Make sure it keeps you away from the possibility of ever accepting living with regrets.
In closing, we live our day-to-day lives as if we can do no wrong. As if every decision is the best decision. As if nothing will come back to haunt us. Yeah, maybe we’ll put our dream off another day. What’s another week? That will turn into a year. Now it’s been a decade plus. By then, all we have next to us are regrets. Why live that life? Why be that person? Why allow regrets to be the main focus and star in your life? From this day forward regrets aren’t invited in your life. They are no longer welcomed.
Food for Thought… You do the Dishes.
