What to do about regrets?

Regret is a sneaky business. 

I don't have a lot of them in my life, but a few come up off the top of my head, and I'm not afraid to admit it. 

There was that dope suede jacket I gave away when I first went vegan. So comfortable. Fit like a glove. Would have been perfect for Southern California weather. 

Then there was the Tibetan bowl I gave away when I was moving away from Michigan. I still don't know what came over me, and I've never found another quite like it. 

I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I joined the Marines at 18 years old, rather than going straight to college. I'll tell that whole story some other time. 

As I look back further, the self-doubt I harbored around my music comes to mind. It makes me regret that I repressed it for so long and didn't learn to solve that earlier because it's probably the single biggest thing that hobbled my career in music. 

Would've, could've, should've...

What makes regret so tricky is that once you start down that path, you're on a bullet train to some dark corners if your mind and countless alternate realities. You'll need some fancy mental gymnastics to think your way out of those corners and make peace again. 

I turn to Coach Lasso for the all-time best advice about regret. 

"Do you know what the happiest animal is? The goldfish. Want to know why? Because it has a 10-second memory." 

Be like the goldfish. 

#noregrets

The Mystic Next Door