Living with Regrets
By Dan Wilson
“If only I had . . . .”
Raise your hand if you have never completed that sentence. I
didn’t think so. Not one of you raised your hand. Not that
I can see you, of course, but I’ve been around long enough to know that
no one travels very far through life without experiencing
regrets. Sometimes they are things we’ve done and other times
things we failed to do. . . . I didn’t raise my hand either, by
the way.
For me it was college. Rather than being a
time of adventure and discovery, of hope and preparation for the
future, college was a time in my life of chaos and confusion. If only I had attended a smaller college rather than a large university,
I’ve often thought. Perhaps a smaller environment would have
provided clearer vision and greater focus. If only I could do it
over again. Then again, what if I had? What if I had
attended a different school, how would I have met my lovely wife who
produced our two wonderful sons who married our beautiful
daughters-in-law who will soon bear our first two grandchildren?
If I had done it differently, how would I have this awesome life I have
today?
“Make the most of your regrets,” advised Henry David
Thoreau. But how, we ask ourselves? Regrets are
consequences that occur from our failures and mistakes, from making the
wrong choices when we’ve encountered forks in the road. But even
those wrong paths we choose may be paved with blessings, sometimes
enormous ones, if we will recognize them. It is in recognizing
those blessings and expanding upon them that we make the most of our
regrets.
“If only I had . . . .” is a common remark we all make from time to time. It’s our way of
imagining what might have been had we chosen a different path.
But let us not forget that regrets can only be redeemed in what we did
with the choices we made, not the ones we didn’t.
Dan Wilson is a coach, trainer, and mentor. To find out more visit his website at www.beyondimaginationctm.com.
2 comments on Living with Regrets
Add a comment
To add comments without entering your email and image verification, you must be logged in. Login or Join Blogster
I like your point about how if you had not gone to that particular college, maybe the good things wouldn't have come about.
The problem with college for young adults is getting to know themselves as an adult. Dave Ramsey says going to a big school for the pedigree will not get you a better job but more into debt. Smaller schools have the same programs with less debt and less stress to be in the in crowds.