I Wish I’d Done That—and I Will
Regrets, I’ve had a few.... You might be expecting me to say
there’s no room for regrets or “if onlys.” As it happens, they
can be very useful—if you choose to use them to make a dif-
ference going forward.
There are three types of “I wish I’d done that” scenarios. The
first is when you genuinely feel you didn’t capitalize on an
opportunity or that you missed out on something. The second
is when you see somebody who’s done something great and
you wish it had been you. The final type is not you, but the
others—the people who hang around with a sort of permanent
“I could have been a contender” mentality. If only I’d had the
chances, the lucky breaks, the opportunities. For this last
group, the bad news is that even if Lady Luck had come up
and bitten them on the behind, they’d still have missed it.
When it comes to looking at what others have achieved, this
world is divided into those who look at others enviously and
those who look at others as a motivational tool. If you find
yourself saying, “I wish I had done that/thought that/been
there/seen that/experienced that/met them/understood
that,” then you need to learn to follow it up with a “And now,
I will....”
In many cases the thing you wished you’d done might not be
out of the question—even if it’s not exactly as you would have
done it previously. For example, if you’re thinking “I wish I’d
taken a year off before college and traveled to China like so
and so did,” then you’re clearly not going to be able to reverse
time. But could you get a sabbatical for six months and go
now? Could you take a longer-than-usual vacation and go