Regrets are a natural part of life. We all have them, though some regrets are worse than others. Some regrets are small or even petty, like not saying ‘thank you’ to a stranger when they did something nice for you, or not doing something equal for a stranger yourself. Others are more emotional, and they mean more. The feeling of regret is not a good one, but it’s also one that you cannot avoid. Greater regrets stay with you for longer, and the biggest regrets of your life help shape the person you’ve become. Whether it’s the education you choose, the baby you got, or the person you married, regrets represent the realization that something in your life cannot be changed easily, or not at all. We accumulate many regrets over a lifetime; memories of things we wish we’d done differently, but know we can’t change. They aren’t a bad thing though, because the grass is always greener on the other side. Regret is the shadow of doubt, the possibility that things could’ve gone better than they did. There isn’t any guarantee that they would’ve, but we want to believe that, especially if we’re at a difficult time in our lives.
Think about any regret that you’ve had. Did you make the right choice at the time? What’s changed? Maybe you shouldn’t have chosen that major, or perhaps she really wasn’t worth your time after all. Maybe you should’ve done more and talked less, or maybe it’s the other way around. The question is, who knows? The important thing isn’t making the right choice, because there is no right choice. The important thing is to simply make a choice. The feeling of regret may be terrible, but it’s not the worst thing in the entire world. In my experience, it’s a lot more painful to have regrets about not doing something, than it is to regret something you’ve done. This isn’t a perfect rule – killing someone, for instance, may alter that idea – but in everyday lives in a civilized persons life, I think it’s a good rule of thumb. Would you rather feel regretful about not asking that boy you like out, without knowing what the outcome would’ve been, or would you prefer to ask him out and regret the poor choice of words that made him decline? The point is, doing things might give you a lot of regret to cope with afterwards, but you’ll grow more as a person than you would from not doing something and regretting it. No one says it’s easy to do things you might regret, but maybe it’s worth it in the long run.
Remember that life isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, and regrets aren’t anchoring you down – they’re simply small bumps in the road, that’ll help you grow stronger, and finish stronger.
