Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi
Great reflection here, and a conclusion I normally settle on too. Like the previous poster who mentioned he could have bought Bitcoin at 10 cents. We all could have, and most of us would have sold at $10, or $100, or whatever. It's easy to look back and woulda coulda shoulda, but it's an exercise in futility.
|
This is spot on. Look, as evidenced by my tongue in cheek posts on both this thread (about ballparks, didn't expect that one to be so well received, lol) and the "regrets" thread (about this years Royals), I don't really believe in regrets or beating yourself up. I especially agree with those who have basically stated that we are a sum being of all our parts, meaning if you like where you are at today, you really don't want anything in the past changed.
The other thing is, to your point, is when most people spend time in regret or beating themselves up, they tend to believe that the best possible dream outcome would've occured had they only invested in whatever, or stayed with the girl or blah blah. I know a guy who was a decent HS football player who struggled with this often. He quit ball to focus on partying, which literally thousands of young people do yearly. As he aged, he used to struggle with beating himself up over how he "could've been in the NFL". It's like, dude .000001% or whatever of amazing HS football players actually ever make it to the NFL and most of them end up Gehrig Dieter, at best. He most likely would've played football for a few more years, quit when he wasn't good enough and gotten a job like everyone else.
There is nothing wrong with looking at your past and letting some of your experience shape your future decisions but at least be realistic about it. Like if my buddy had thought "I wish I didn't quit football when I did, it would've been fun to keep playing and I probably would've gotten laid more". Fine. Then you move on.