I have learned to not feel regret for the decisions I make …
Well that’s not true, there are 3 opportunities I chose not to do which I have often wondered how they would have changed my life.
Career Opportunities Not Taken
1) I often wonder where my design career would have gone if I had taken the job as a jewelry illustrator for a high-end, well established jewelry designer before I graduated from design school. I said no thanks for the simple reason that “I was going traveling after school”.
Life Opportunities Not Taken
2) I often wonder what it would have felt like to have backpacked through Europe with my friend from design school when I had the chance but chose not because I knew Europe could wait and then I got too old to want to backpack anywhere other than on the side of a mountain.
Courageous Opportunities Not Taken
3) Lastly, I often have wondered where my design career would have gone if I had moved to New York after my first visit to that incredible city. Upon entering the streets of New York from Penn Station, my immediate thoughts were “I’m moving HERE! All I need is my clothes, my computer and my cat.” I was full of youthful adventure and bravado. Then as soon as I got back home I chickened out.
Letting go of Past Regrets
I realize now that yes, those opportunities could have changed the direction of my life and career but I wouldn’t have lived through the life changing opportunities that I DID get to experience. Thankfully I no longer regret the decisions I make because I have learned there is a path that I am forging that I don’t always see.
Being Grateful
I have learned that if something fails to turn out the way I expected it would, I now believe there was a lesson to be learned and this lesson will have greater meaning somewhere in my future. To my amazement, I finally realized it is because of all those “mistakes” and decisions that I now have a life that fits together perfectly.
