Tis Better to Have Taken the Chance Than to Wonder “What If?”

I was speaking last week to a client who’s going through some major life transitions and was being hard on herself for some of her life choices.  She said that from all outward appearances, her life appears fun and glamorous to others, but she’s not feeling that inside herself.  She’s filled with doubts about the wisdom of her decisions and wonders if the upheaval in her life has been too high a cost to pay for all that she’s had the chance to experience.

I, too, have often wondered this about my own life.  I’ve been called "brave" and "daring" for choosing to live life on my own terms, and many times I wonder if these descriptions are even remotely related to reality as I know it.

When I arrive in Funktown (as I refer to this state <g>), I have to remind myself of the lessons I’ve learned along the way that have made me the person I am today.  For example, in making my decision to relocate (moving back to Texas from Arkansas), I initially looked upon my failure to thrive in Little Rock as just that–a big, fat, failure.  I hadn’t connected with others like I hoped, didn’t meet a special guy for a romantic relationship, nor was I able to build my business liked I’d wanted while I was there. Meanwhile, I racked up expenditures that weren’t paying for themselves, as the cost of living was higher than I anticipated.

To get me through Funktown, I then started to ask myself a series of questions:
–What life lessons have you gotten out of this experience?
–If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
–How can you apply what you’ve learned to your future?

The answers to these questions for me are "light bulb moments", as Oprah would say, and I fully realized that if I hadn’t chosen to take the actions that I took (despite a disappointing outcome), I would always wonder "what if" and perhaps regret not being curious and not taking the chance to try something new.

The saying goes that "curiosity killed the cat".  I think for us bi-peds it might be safer to say that "curiosity kills regret".  I’d rather live my life without regret..:)