Always Take Your Shot!

“It is the acts of omission which hurt more than the acts of commission”

Regret is one of the strongest emotions that we feel. It is not strong in terms of its immediate impact like anger, grief, rage, or elation but more in terms of its long-term effects. Like cancer afflicting a body, it remains and slowly spreads till it consumes the whole.

What could have been? What if you had applied for that job? Or sent that cold email? Or made that investment? Or left your job to startup? or asked that person out? How different your life would have been? Would you have been richer? Happier? Or more content?

These are the questions that cloud your mind. But they come with uncertainty because you don’t know how it would have panned out. What if the job turned out to be toxic? what if the startup failed? What if you were not compatible with that person? And hence you remain circumspect. Imagining how it would have been but not knowing how it would have turned out. The best case makes you despondent and the worst case is the story you tell to console yourself.

Life is too small to be lived with regrets. The one principle that stands in good stead is to live life with a regret minimization framework. Whenever you come at a crossroads and have to make a decision, ask yourself - when I am 80, would I regret more that I did not go down this path or that I went down this path and it did not work? In most cases, the answer would be regret of not going down the path.

Hence - always take your shot!