“Never regret. If
it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” (Victoria Holt)
Regret is one of those human nature things that are hard for
many to let go of, just like self-doubt. Some may mask the term in other words,
like “Monday morning quarterbacking”; however, that Monday morning look back
only has positive value if it is used as a way to glean experience and not as
an opportunity to wallow in regret.
Although the quotes of athletes is often derided as being full
of cliques; there is much truth in many of those cliques about looking ahead
and not back or putting things behind them. Professional athletes know that
they cannot dwell in regret over every loss. They try to learn from those
setbacks. They spend time in the film rooms reviewing a blown play or a missed
opportunity to see what they can learn from them.
Life is full points in time where decisions were made that
might have been made differently. Some of those times turned out OK and we
seldom think back on what might have been, had we taken the other choice that was
in front of us at the time. But,
sometimes things didn’t turn out as we had planned or thought that they would
and we tend to look back and see (or find) those decision points where we might
have done it differently, especially if we knew the potential outcome. Well, we
weren’t prescient and things turned out the way they did. Let it go. Move on.
If you must replay the film in your mind, at least treat it as a learning opportunity
and not an opportunity to beat yourself up.
In the Frank Sinatra song My Way, about aging he has a line – “Regrets, I’ve had a few; but
then again, too few to mention.” The song goes on to extoll the virtue of moving
on and doing things in life your own way. At the end of the day, the main
regret you will have if you let things get you down and you spend time in
self-abusing remorse, is that you’ve wasted another day. Life’s too short to
throw days away.
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