
I feel with every blog post, the closer I am to revealing my deepest, darkest secrets.
And honestly, the posts that seem to do well are ones that are probably a tad too personal. I always need to remember that people I know are reading this and may very well ask me about it. So really, everything I say here I should really be comfortable talking about in person.
Or we can all just agree that whatever is said here, stays here. And with that, let's get into what I'm about to chat wham about this week.
What is your biggest regret in life? I'm sure it's something that you think about every day. And the more days that go past, the more regrets that build up, and you start to resent yourself. Why did you do that moronic thing? Why did you bet on Tottenham winning the league in 2016? Why did you let your ex go? And regrets are tricky. They're a plague on the brain but are also built upon pure fantasy.
Time moves, we make decisions every day, for good and bad. We don't intentionally make bad decisions, although going to Coopers in Liverpool is probably an objectively bad decision. Every choice we make is the result of a bunch of different processes. And each of those processes is actually us trying to predict the future. And of course, we can make informed decisions and have a pretty good idea of what the future will hold, but a lot of the time we don't. And a lot of the time, regret is actually the result of you making what you thought was the best decision at the time. And that is okay, in fact, more than okay!
Have you ever wished you made a different decision but you genuinely thought the decision you made was the best? It's a weird middle ground to be in, and in fact, is probably the worst kind of regret. Because a lot of the time we can look back in hindsight and see maybe the choice we made wasn't the best. But what if you look back, the choice was right, but you still didn't get the outcome you wanted or you are still wishing that maybe you did something else. Make sense?
It's something that I've been coming to terms with lately. I can't say it's a recurrent theme in my life but has definitely been prevalent over the last year. And as much as we all want to see into the future and make informed decisions, there is one thing you really can't predict. And that's the behaviour of other people. In any given situation, if you be a bit selfish and put yourself first, you can never regret that.
Okay, you putting yourself first may mean you have to make hard decisions or do things you don't necessarily want to, but at least you can always look back and be grateful that in that moment you chose yourself. Because imagine the opposite. Imagine putting your faith in some big-headed lying bozo for them to let you down. So now you're hurt not necessarily because of your own actions, but because someone else has imposed that on you.
And I can't sit here and say that you should never have belief in other people and put your trust in them, because sometimes you really do have to. I'd like to think the more life experience you get, you can start to really learn who the people are that you should put your faith in. But sometimes, putting faith in yourself is the hardest. Trusting your gut, believing that what you're doing is the right thing. So don't be afraid to choose yourself sometimes. Being let down by other people will always hurt more because it is out of your control.
Don't think about whether you'll regret a decision, always do what you think is best at that time. Because life goes on, things change, you can always look back and see things differently, but you can never take yourself back to that exact moment. So you owe it to yourself to be true to yourself and do the "right" thing.
I have no idea if any of that made sense... let me know if it did... or didn't.
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