The thing about a regret is it involves another outcome that was never experienced. That’s what gnaws at you—all the what ifs and might’ve beens. It’s possible there’s a you in another dimension living out that other sliding door scenario, perhaps even wishing they were in the Option A you’re experiencing.
That’s probably a little too much wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey complicated stuff to consider, but the ponderings of a missed opportunity can be bothersome as we’ll never really know how the alternative could have played out. So, a regret is born. Speaking of which, here’s few:
Gwyneth Paltrow Rom-Coms: Duets, Emma, Shakespeare in Love, Shallow Hal, The Pallbearer, and the alluded to Sliding Doors—not that I don’t enjoy some Rom-Coms, there’s just something about all these late-90s Gwyneth-starring films I wish I could consciously uncouple from my memory. It’s not a deep regret, but the other Me on another Earth saved the $100 in movie tickets and 10 hours spent on these experiences and instead enjoyed repeat viewings of Nicolas Cage action flicks and celebrated Saving Private Ryan winning Best Picture.
Lesson Learned: Stick with Gwyneth’s better, more gritty (Se7en), offbeat (Royal Tenenbaums) and superhero (Iron Man's Pepper Potts) roles. When it comes to alternate choice multiple reality movies, opt for Another Earth instead of Sliding Doors. You won’t regret it.
Opting for Comfort: There have been a few times where I shied away from something because it was going to disrupt a comfortable life. My excuses revolved around too many “too muches,” whether it was time, effort, risk or cost, even though whatever comfortable mediocrity in which I was mired hardly justified those “concerns.”
I contemplated law school but didn’t want intense schooling for three long years, only to realize I probably would’ve made a half-decent lawyer years later.
I debated switching from a PR/advertising job for a career-changing IT opportunity but neglected to pursue it because I felt the learning curve was too steep, only to later discover that agency life was a dead-end and IT opportunities exploded.
I rebuffed invitations to exercise and take part in races because the training was really hard, only to have a difficult conversation with my doctor years later that my blood counts were not at healthy levels, and once I started exercising and training, my outputs were nowhere near where they could be.
Lesson Learned: No pain, no gain? There’s real truth in that. If you never step out, or give something difficult a go, you never know where it might lead. You might be comfortable, but comfort never lasts. The times I’ve been forced to take on something new, like a new job way outside my comfort zone or training for a mini-triathlon, were not pleasant. But I was forced to dive in with only my trust in God that it wouldn’t end me, and after working through the struggles, I came out better for it in the end.
I have to wonder how the Iron Man-competing, justice-crusading attorney me in another realm is doing—I’m guessing he’s not married to Gwyneth Paltrow.
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