|
Grok
Has Been a Bad Boy



Registered: 12/03/03
Posts: 1,262
Loc: Greener Pastures
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
|
Regret
#7536445 - 10/19/07 05:24 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
"We regret not so much the things we do, but those which we do not."
I read this the other day and it really hit home. Looking back, there really aren't many things I've done in my life that I regret. I've done plenty of dumb shit but I usually learn a lot from it, and it serves me in that fashion and I don't feel it was really a loss.
But sometimes I feel like my life is one long string of missed opportunities. I could dwell in regret for hours about things I have passed up, and where they could have led me. It's not like a habit of mine or anything, but when I get really discontented with my present circumstances its not hard for me to wind up there.
I lack the impulse it takes to really grab opportunity by the horns when it strikes. Too often I over-analyze things that come my way and by the time I make up my mind it's too late.
What are your regrets?
-------------------- Entropy is increasing. To send me a PM, go to my journal
|
Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
Last seen: 3 days, 15 hours
|
Re: Regret *DELETED* [Re: Grok]
#7536509 - 10/19/07 05:35 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Post deleted by Lion
Reason for deletion: .
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
|
mushroomplume
Stranger

Registered: 10/16/06
Posts: 1,395
Last seen: 14 years, 19 days
|
Re: Regret [Re: Lion]
#7536614 - 10/19/07 06:00 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I find that the older I get, the less I regret, and the less depressed I become.
Knowledge puts things into perspective. haha, at 17 when my first real girlfriend dumped me, I was crushed horribly and never thought that sadness would fade away.
My days now may seem dull and boring to many, but I'm thankful for being alive and healthy. I'm thankful I can see the moon at night and to be able to hear the crickets. We take so much for granted, a night of enjoying the sight of the moon would be a dream for a blind person and likewise the sounds of crickets for a def person.
It's all relative. Peace, dude
|
Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
Last seen: 3 days, 15 hours
|
|
YES!
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
|
Veritas


Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
|
Re: Regret [Re: Grok]
#7536937 - 10/19/07 07:47 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I regret less and less as I get older.
What I have come to realize is that we will ALWAYS see something as a mistake in hindsight. Life is messy. Decisions have consequences, and they are not always what we would prefer.
The big delusion is the idea that we could make 100% negative-consequence-free decisions. That somehow we could discern the "right" way to behave in every circumstance. But IMO there is no such path. Every choice we make will either result in consequences we prefer, or consequences we do not prefer, or a mix of both. If the mix is weighted towards the negative, we may choose to regret our decision. This choice is based in delusion.
The fact is (again, IMO), there are no guarantees, as life is unpredictable in essence. We may take action with good intentions, or with a lack of intention (aka unconsciousness), and find that the results are what we interpret as negative. To decide that this is something we could have avoided may or may not be educational. If we can, in fact, alter our future behavior based upon newly acquired knowledge, then this experience is educational. If things could have gone south no matter what choice we made, then it was a crap shoot. 
So, I like where I'm at. I can see actual progress (internally) from where I was 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 2 years ago, a year ago. This, to me, means that I'm learning from my "mistakes." Does it mean that I can avoid future mistakes? Probably not. I may not make the SAME mistakes again, but I would guess that I'll make fresh new ones.
Guess I'm human. Guess this is life.
|
Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
|
Re: Regret [Re: Grok]
#7538955 - 10/20/07 11:24 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I try for No regrets. Waste of time. Better to watch TV.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
|

Egrets? I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention...
--------------------
|
Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
|
|
Kinky.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
|
LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story



Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
|
|
Post deleted by LunarEclipseReason for deletion: quack
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
|
Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
|
Re: Regret [Re: Grok]
#7541931 - 10/21/07 09:08 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I guess it's really impossible not to have any. If I'm honest with myself I would say I do. However I have realized the futility of regret and so turn my focus away when they come up for a dip into self-important, self-indulgent, self-pity.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
|
Kinematics
coyote vision


Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 662
Loc: Colorado
Last seen: 7 years, 1 month
|
|
I don't have any regrets, because everything I've done amounts to who I am now, and while I'm not perfect I'd rather work with what I got, and this is what I got, so this (now) is the point in which I am moving forward. You just gotta go for it and deal with the world not with what you've done, but who you are right now.
There's no point in regretting what you've already done, because you've already done it, there's no changing it, and what you've done makes you who you are, so if you want to change it, right now is your chance.
Edited by Kinematics (10/21/07 10:42 AM)
|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
|
Quote:
LunarEclipse said:
Quote:
Egrets? I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention...
Maybe you should try living in the Heron now...
Good one!
--------------------
|
Veritas


Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
|
|
Quote:
LunarEclipse said:
Quote:
Egrets? I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention...
Maybe you should try living in the Heron now...
I prefer to live in the Pheasant.
|
Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
Last seen: 3 days, 15 hours
|
Re: Regret [Re: Veritas]
#7544006 - 10/21/07 06:45 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|

Let Osprey for those hapless souls who have not seen the wisdom of the Pheasant moment.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
|
OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
|
Re: Regret [Re: Lion]
#7544650 - 10/21/07 09:10 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Ohmigawd, I have created a monster! Several in fact.
All we are is ducks in the wind. ~ Kansas
--------------------
|
WhiskeyClone
Not here


Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 16,509
Loc: Longitudinal Center of Canada ...
|
Re: Regret [Re: Grok]
#7546145 - 10/22/07 09:35 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Grok said:
What are your regrets?
-Being afraid to look like a fool, mostly. I'm sure many people who have met me think I'm uninteresting because I didn't say much.
-Avoiding competition and challenges
-Not striving to do my best
But, I'm still in my twenties, so why regret when I can stop doing those things now?
This thread reminded me of a quote:
I couldn’t become anything at all; neither spiteful nor good, neither a scoundrel nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect. Now I live out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything and that only a fool can become something.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky
-------------------- Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. ~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
|
|