I found myself thinking about regret as I sat down to write this week. There are two sides to our thought process: logic and emotion. Some people use one more than the other but most of us are capable of considering both, even if we are sometimes blinded by one or the other or simply forgetting the one we fail to factor in even exists at all.
For logic-based thinkers, regret exists but it’s like a far-off radio buzzing. It’s annoying but it mostly lives in the background, ignored and impotent. Emotional people feel regret like a body blow. Even feelings long-since buried can strike in an instant, a sneaky snake plunging its fangs deep inside your stomach. And as with a snake bite, there’s physical pain that can gnaw, spread, and sometimes become debilitating.
Me personally? I’m a bit of both. I’m very good at learning from my experiences and accepting my mistakes. But I’m not immune to that snake venom, and when it gets in my veins it poisons everything I see, touch or do, sometimes for years. That feeling is why I’m so attracted to the idea that we regret those actions we don’t take far more often than things we actually do. My biggest regret are the chances I didn’t take—the choices I was too scared to make. I’m going to do my best to remember those words when I’m faced with a challenge or fork in the road. Because that snake is waiting in the weeds, hoping I take the wrong turn.