Dealing with regret

Regret. It’s an emotion your humble correspondent is all too familiar with.

Life is strange, in that it always makes perfect sense when you look back on it. Unfortunately, you have to live through it going forwards.

Some people spend their whole lives wondering “what if” about some moment in the distant past. Some missed opportunity or some business deal gone wrong. The past can be so pervasive it blinds them to the opportunities ahead of them.

In business, unfortunately, moments of regret are common.

Thankfully, fixing past mistakes is easy.

All you need is a DeLorean with a flux capacitor.

While a hoverboard or a mad scientist are nice extras, all you really need is enough open road to reach 88 miles per hour. Blasting The Power of Love by Huey Lewis from your DeLorean’s 8-track stereo can help set the mood for your time travels, but again, it’s not necessary.

Oh, you’ll also need a power source that can quickly generate 1.21 gigawatts of energy, otherwise it won’t do much. Some uranium bars from your friendly neighbourhood Libyan extremist or perhaps a well-timed lightning strike will do the trick nicely. (If you do choose to go back using this method, having a detailed record of past lightning strikes can be handy – but whatever you do, don’t take back a sporting almanac!)

If you don’t have a flux capacitor and a DeLorean handy, don’t sweat. It’s situations like this where Time Lords, or a Tardis, come in handy.

Of course, if a Tardis didn’t come crashing into your backyard in the middle of the night, you can always try flying a starship through a rift in the time-space continuum. However, if you choose this option, make sure the wormhole you choose is stable, or else you might never get back home again!

Seriously, the universe is a big place and those wormholes can spit you out anywhere! Old Taskmaster would hate you to get lost out there!

What’s that? You don’t have a working flux capacitor? No Tardis or starship either? Well then, you’re just going to have to resolve those issues the best way you can, here and now!

Quite possibly the only reaction to a moment of past regret is to cover it up or pretend it never happened. The problem with big elaborate lies is they are constantly eroded by the truth like a sandstone cliff. And eventually, they crumble and fall down, generally making matters worse for everyone.

Instead, you should examine what happened and why, acknowledge your mistakes and then think about how to avoid those mistakes in the future. Then move on and focus on your current and future opportunities!

After all, you can’t live in the past – and let’s face it – you probably wouldn’t want to either!

(P.S. For anyone who needs to know, there’s a lightning strike scheduled for Forest Hill for 3pm. Don’t ask how Old Taskmaster found this out!)

Get it done – when you get back to the future!