Stranger than fiction is a cliché often applied to life. In this case I’m talking about what we regret.

Paradoxically we don’t regret the things we have done, no matter how disgusting or awful. What we do regret is what we DIDN’T do. Take a moment and think about it.

How often have you endured conversations which go along the lines of, “… if only I had gone to the concert while he was still alive …”. Or “… if only I had had the guts to go over and say hello to him/her” on recalling a possible meeting with some superstar. If only, if only, if only ….

As a kid I started playing guitar. Then one day in my twenties I suddenly stopped. Years later it was the source of much disappointment I hadn’t just kept playing. I enjoyed it and can’t recall why I stopped.

When I got older, a constant regret was when I was young, I was often too shy or self-conscious to go up and talk to a girl I liked. Funny, I don’t spend a moment rejoicing in the ones I did talk to. No. I just regret the ones I couldn’t pluck up the nerve to meet.

Fortunately, I have done a lot of eclectic things like whitewater-rafting; parachuting; working as a truck-driver; being a roughneck on the oil rigs in the North Sea; running a pub in London; getting a degree, (not so unusual); running an ultra-marathon; doing a three-day canoe race in a double canoe, and so on. Now, if I ever mention any of these, people listening always respond by saying the same thing: “I wish I had done something like that.”

They are inadvertently regretting what they DIDN’T do.

So, when considering a new career, partner, adventure, place to visit, hobby or anything you haven’t being doing – all you do is decide how much you are going to regret not doing it later when you look back.