Giving Thanks For Not Having Regrets

During the Thanksgiving season, social media has been buzzing with everyone listing things they’re thankful for (odd, I know). I almost jumped on the wagon, but I thought it was a bit silly because I’m thankful for pretty much everything. That led me to thinking about the evil twin of thankfulness; regret. What most people think they regret turns out to be something they’re later thankful for.

The majority of my regrets are short-term and usually food related (“Why did I eat all that pizza and 12 volcano wings?”) or laziness related (“Did I just waste 5 hours watching a Cake Boss marathon instead of working out?”). I remember my father explaining why I needed to learn history in grade school. He said it’s so we learn from our past. I don’t always learn from my past, but I definitely wouldn’t change it because it made me who I am today, and I’m quite happy in the present.
 

We all have those time machine fantasies. If you could go back in the past, what would you do differently? (For the purpose of this blog, this time machine only goes backwards... like hindsight, ironically) I always try to think how far back I could go and tweak things without changing the present too much. I normally can’t go very far. If I did better in high school, I wouldn’t have joined the Air Force and seen everything I have. Had we divorced earlier; I wouldn’t have mybeautiful, goofy daughter. Being unceremoniously dumped over the summer me led me to someone even better.
 

Forget dwelling on the past and trying to figure out what you would change. Concentrate on the present and the positive results all those “mistakes” and “mishaps” produced. Use that time machine for something more useful like getting rich on sports betting or killing Hitler…