What makes a man who he is? Is it the worst things he’s ever done, or the best things he wants to be? When you find yourself in the middle of your life and you’re nowhere near of where you were going, how do you find the way from the person you’ve become to the one you know you could have been? - Allie Keys (Steven Spielberg’s Taken, 2002)
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes wonder how else I could’ve turned out - personally and professionally - if I have made different choices in life. Like if I had been bolder or more self-assured early on, would I have been more successful in my career? And what kind of career? Would I have had my own family - husband and growing children - by now? Or would I have been traveling places and getting enriching life experiences, or could I have had become that adult woman who sits in front of her house all day, smoking cheap macanudo cigars while ogling my neighbors’ bigger houses and shiny cars?
It’s sometimes fun to speculate and dissect which littlest step could’ve possibly turned our fortune around if we only were a bit more attentive and perceptive and wise. But it’s never good to have regrets, especially ones that go deep, because those will only make us unhappy. I’m not an authority here - or in anything for that matter - but I do believe that there is not much point in dwelling in the past, except for letting what’s in them to teach us and guide us moving forward. As the cliche goes, you can’t change the past. Can you?
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