Regret Is Just Doubt Disguised as Nostalgia

"Regret is attachment to an outcome that was never meant to be."

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had taken a different path? If you had said yes instead of no, stayed instead of left, pursued the degree, the relationship, the dream?

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on past decisions, questioning if I made the wrong choices. I even started to “fix” one of them, only to realize halfway through why I made that decision in the first place.

Then, my mind wandered to The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. In the book (spoiler alert!), the protagonist finds herself trapped between life and death, given the chance to explore all the lives she could have lived - the career she passed up, the relationships she left, the adventures she missed. She believed these alternate lives would have been better. But as she steps into them, she discovers each one has its own struggles and disappointments. What she thought she had lost was never really meant for her. The life she regretted losing was never as perfect as she imagined.

The opportunities we passed up, the things we quit, and the paths we chose instead aren’t mistakes; they are decisions that shaped who we are.

Regret sneaks in when we let doubt whisper, “If only you had...” In truth, regret is just doubt disguised as nostalgia. Falling off the path is part of the path. The key is to trust where our choices have led us and silence the voice that says we should have done something differently.

Have you ever looked back on a past decision only to realize it was the right one all along?