Change vs. Regret

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” – Sydney J. Harris

Change is scary. Change is hard. Change takes work.

I know you’ve had those thoughts before. We all have. We know we could try harder but giving it 80% works ok too. We know we could save more but saving a little is ok too. We know we could make more money but what we make now is ok too. We know we could give more but the amount we give now is ok too. We know our attitude could be better but our attitude now is ok too.

The never ending challenge of what we could do vs. what we actually do. Another way to word it is Potential Life vs. Actual Life.

Our golf game could be better but the way we play now is ok too. How do we move past ordinary into extraordinary?

Step 1 is to understand that Change weighs ounces and Regret weighs TONS! One of the worst feelings you can ever experience is to get to the end of your life and realize you could have done more. And how do I know this? Other people’s experiences. There are 2 ways to learn; our own experiences and other people’s experiences. This is a painful lesson to learn so let’s try to use wisdom from others to motivate ourselves.

Imagine laying in the hospital with the realization that you only have days left to live. What would be going through your head about the life you could have lived? What kind of golf scores could you have shot? What dream vacations could you have taken? What relationships could you have nurtured? What business could you have started? I promise you all of these thoughts will come to mind. Let’s borrow from the possibility of future regret to create motivation for today.

What changes can you make today that will equate to better scores tomorrow? Change is usually a lot more painful in our heads than in reality. And remember, it weighs a lot less than regret. If you try, you won’t have regret. Even if you fail, you can look back knowing you gave it your best shot. There should be no regret in a great effort.

So, let’s get to a few tough questions:

• What changes need to happen with golf?
• What changes need to happen with our health?
• What saving changes do we need?
• What spending changes do we need?
• Any attitude changes needed?

And don’t feel like I’m putting you all on the hot seat here. I’m asking myself the same things. What minor changes can we implement today that lead us towards a better tomorrow? Remember Kaizen? We don’t need huge changes. Small, constant movement towards our desired goals. Small steps over time lead to big change. Start small and let time do it’s thing.

Next post I’ll talk about one of the greatest side effects to making small changes for the better!

See you next time. Don’t forget to bookmark the page.

Mike Snyder