Tuesday, June 1, 2010

No Regrets

In a few days my youngest niece will be turning 15.  Since she became a part of our family (through adoption) I have tried to be there for her as someone, other than her mom, to bounce ideas and thoughts off.

Last week as we talked Allison expressed excitement about attending a Youth Conference (YC).  One of the things she was most excited about was the chance to see friends that live in various parts of Alberta, Canada and the United States.  One of these people was a teenager named Darcy (who lives in California) that Allison had met over the Internet through some other mutual friends.

Allison was questioning whether or not to make an attempt to arrange a meeting in person with Darcy during the weekend at YC.  She was wavering back and forth on the subject.

As we discussed the situation I asked Allison if she didn't attempt to meet up with Darcy during the weekend, would she go home feeling disappointed.  She decided that yes she would be disappointed.  So I gave her some advice that I wished I had been told about when I was a teenager.  I told her to go ahead and take the chance of meeting up with Darcy and if it was something that was supposed to happen it would.

I emphasized that if she didn't make the attempt she would always have that feeling of regret about the situation.  I told her that I had experienced regret over many situations where I didn't step out and take a chance at something that could have been a very positive experience.  I also told her that the times I did step out of my comfort zone and took a chance I was really glad I had done it.

Yesterday Allison told me that things had worked out for her to meet Darcy in person and she was very happy about that.  Of course there was a bit of awkwardness that comes with two teenagers meeting each other for the first time, but she was so glad it had worked out for them to meet.  I told her that it was obviously something that God had wanted to happen since it worked out in a way that neither Allison nor Darcy had really planned.  But it was good that it happened.

I was speaking from experience as I talked to Allison about having regrets.  If I look back over my life I see many times when I chose not to step out of my comfort zone and try something new.  I didn't want Allison to turn 53 (my age) and look back at all the regrets she had from not taking those steps and try something new or different.

As I look back over my life I see that there were times when I did take that step out of my comfort zone and tried something new or different.  Those are times I can look back at with positive feelings and remind myself that taking chances can be very good things that have positively affected my life.

My challenge today and tomorrow is to try to take as many of those steps out of my comfort zone as I can and look at them as positive learning experiences.  Taking those chances can help me grow and mature into the person I am destined to be.

Living with regrets is not an enjoyable life.  So today I choose to stop living with them and move on and take new challenges as they arise.  I may be 53 years old but I can still learn new things and make positive impacts on my life.

I encourage you to stop living a life with regrets and move into a life full of new and exciting challenges and activities.

Be well today.

2 comments:

  1. A very profound and wise post today. You are so right about making a wise choice based on what God would want you to do. I enjoyed reading this very much. blessings
    QMM

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  2. Good thoughts! Enjoyed your posting. Here's to stepping out of our comfort zones and living with less regrets!

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