Why Regret is a Waste of Energy
As you go through life, you will come to choices. A fork in the road, if you will. And when you get to the split, you can choose to go one way or the other. You cannot choose both. Once you’ve made your decision, continued down the path…the other decision no longer is viable. The other path no longer exists. It doesn’t matter “what if…” because that if is gone.
So maybe you’ve made bad decisions…or maybe you haven’t. You can never know how the other decision you passed by would’ve played out, so how can you know if your decision was good or not?
It’s like the Robert Frost poem. You can only be one person on one path, and you will never know if the other way was more scenic, more lovely, less steep. So why “sigh” and imagine the more-traveled path, instead of reveling in where you are now? Sure, you can learn from the past, but don't let it hold you back from selecting a path in future.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
So maybe you’ve made bad decisions…or maybe you haven’t. You can never know how the other decision you passed by would’ve played out, so how can you know if your decision was good or not?
It’s like the Robert Frost poem. You can only be one person on one path, and you will never know if the other way was more scenic, more lovely, less steep. So why “sigh” and imagine the more-traveled path, instead of reveling in where you are now? Sure, you can learn from the past, but don't let it hold you back from selecting a path in future.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.