June 27

  

Today's Quotation:

I have always found that each step we take in life is to be regretted-- if we once begin to wonder how many other steps might have been possible.

John Oliver Hobbes

Today's Meditation:

This is another way of looking at our tendency to focus on what we don't have rather than focusing on what we have right in front of us.  Dale Carnegie spoke of our tendency to think of all the rose gardens in the world rather than the roses that are growing right outside our window (a poor paraphrase, I know!).  But much of the time that I spend with students is taken up with trying to convince them to look at their accomplishments rather than their failures, the positives rather than the negatives.

We can never go back to other roads in our lives that we chose not to take, for the roads now are different-- they have changed as we have changed.  Even if you decide to do something now that you wanted to do ten years ago, like go to college or take a certain vacation, that road isn't the same as the one that it would have been then.  You are a different person with different experiences behind you, and your life situation has changed a lot, if only because you're now ten years older.

There are many ways that I could have gone in life in my past, many directions that would have led to a different now for me.  But I honestly don't even think about them any more, for they're in the past, and they didn't happen.  They pop into my mind now and then and I may consider them for a few minutes, but then I return to the present.  I am where I am, and I want to make the most out of that.  If I spend my time and energy regretting the things that I didn't do, how much time and energy will I have left to contribute to today?

Questions to ponder:

1.  What kinds of regrets do you have?  Do they help you live your today?

2.  How many other routes would have been possible in your life?  Do you think that the fact that you didn't take them means anything to you?

3.  What happens to the energy that we spend on regret?  Is it useful to us?

For further thought:

Your past is always going to be the way it was.  Stop trying to change it.

unattributed

more thoughts and ideas on regret

   

   

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