CONTROL + Z (and regrets)

Every day, as I compose emails, documents, blog posts, files ... I make mistakes. Sometimes small ones, other times big ones. But no matter the size, my safety net is just one key command away ... the key command that saves me from all sorts of blunders and snafoos. Ah yes, how I have come to love pushing CONTROL + Z to undo all that I shouldn't have done in the first place. 

In real life, of course, there is not a key command to undo stuff.

• We either bet or fold.
• We either buy the shoes or we don't.
• We either complete the program or we drop out.
• We either reveal what's in our heart, or we don't.

Either which way, there is a chance that we will regret our choices. At some point, we will all think to ourselves: "If only I could go back in time, I would have studied abroad during college." Or we might say to ourselves: "Oh why didn't I fully express what was in my heart back then?" Or the opposite: "Why did I make myself vulnerable and reveal my feelings?"

Regret.

The topic of regret is what author Kathryn Schulz addresses in this TED talk. Among the things she so eloquently points out, these are the points that I appreciate the most:

• We all have regret. We are not alone.
• The things we regret aren't as horrible as we think they are. (Especially over time.)
• We ought live with our regrets not to remind us of how terrible we are, but to remind us how much better we can be.

Yep. We all have regret. But how will we let our regrets affect us? Will we allow them to become our demons that debilitate us from fully living? Or will we look at our regrets with some degree of humor, learn from them, and become better through them as we move forward?

You'll want to go back
You'll wish you were small
You'll take the clock off of your wall
And you'll wish it was lying
—Regina Spektor