What are some of your Regrets in life ?

[Phantom]

This is something I saw elsewhere and thought it was interesting after reading some of the answers.


I'll Start ….

Not spending enough time with my parents
Not telling the ones that I love how much I love them often
Not following my dream to become an Airline Pilot
Leaving the Silicon Valley in the late 80's when I was really good at Electrical Engineering

There are more … but I have managed to do OK


Most regrets are about chances NOT taken, about words NOT Spoken, They are about dreams NEVER Pursued …. If you could erase these regrets and start with a new slate (every day is a new slate) ……. Do the things that you will NOT regret doing …. It's NEVER too late to make it happen.

[shooter]

You know , I don't have any regrets. I've had a good career , several actually , I'm not rich but I've been able to afford the things I've wanted and I have a great family. I worked a lot of my life with my dad who I think was the best dad in the world. No , I've had a good life. A lot of adventures and a whole lot of fun. I'm just not the type of person that says "what if". Tony , sorry if this wasn't what you was looking for but I answered the question as it applied to me. Like I said , I always feel I've been lucky in life.

[Phantom]

You know , I don't have any regrets. I've had a good career , several actually , I'm not rich but I've been able to afford the things I've wanted and I have a great family. I worked a lot of my life with my dad who I think was the best dad in the world. No , I've had a good life. A lot of adventures and a whole lot of fun. I'm just not the type of person that says "what if". Tony , sorry if this wasn't what you was looking for but I answered the question as it applied to me. Like I said , I always feel I've been lucky in life.

Bryan, there are no right or wrong answers. Just curious.

I grew up very poor, couldn't afford much. My parents instilled in me a work ethic that has allowed me a very good life. My careers have rewarded me nicely also. I still love parking by a large airport, watch the planes come and go and smell the jet fuel as I wonder what would have been……. I can fly a Piper Cherokee, but that isn't the same.

[ths61]

Regret loosing my father early in life and not taking a job opportunity that would have bagged me $5 Million in less than 1 year.

[shooter]

You know Tony I grew up in a blue collar family. We had a small farm , 30 acres. Man to me that place was paradise. We had a pond full of fish , woods full of squirrels and a few coveys of quail. I loved to hunt. Always had a nice quarter horse to ride , my dad trained cutting horses on the side. I just never required a whole lot outside that farm when I was young. Good times.

[Old Ryder]

When things and times are going bad, my favorite saying is that I would not trade my life with anyone on this planet. I am 60 years old and in excellent health---have a wonderful family and more friends than I can even start to count---I cannot think of anything that I really need or want that I don't have. Oh yea, if I had a million dollars I would find things to buy but I am 60 lbs overweight on a planet that has a lot of starving people. The Bible tells me that I have a spectacular future and my best days are ahead of me. It is also study of the Bible that has prevented me having a lot of regrets. I have grew up with a lot of people who did not have good judgement and their answer would be a lot different.


I have made my share of mistakes and will continue to do so. I view mistakes as learning tools more than things to drag me down---or even dwell on.

My mother died when I was 44 and if I had to come up with something, I did not really appreciate her while she was here. I regret not telling her a lot of stuff that I want to now-----but I get that chance when I see her in the future, so that is not a real biggie.

Without getting specific, I will say that I have let some other humans to allow me to make a fool of myself and my major fault is that I am too trusting. Add that to taking too long in life to figure out that a job is not more important than being there when my daughter was born and that not everybody that smiles and shakes your hand is your friend.

Sorry if I am getting too deep----just a crazy old man reflecting on his time here..............................

[stroguy]

I'm not a regretful person, but I find myself a somewhat wanting person. My pops and I never had the greatest relationship, but I knew he loved me. Just from a different generation I guess. Now he is going downhill everyday. He knows the end is near, but it's too late, we are far away. I want my mother back as 57 is too soon to leave me.

But I really don't regret anything. It's a poker hand and we play it the best we can.

I'm glad of my career and that I was able to serve people, citizens.

[MisterB]

My interpretation of regret is something you wish you would've done differently, so with that in mind I can't regret much before my children were born because any fundamental changes would've changed my life in ways that would prevent their birth. They are perfect and amazing and I'd happily skip the trip in the time machine back to when I was 24 or so to tell myself to not drink so much and invest a little money in a couple tech stocks.

Thinking of things that I regret since the birth of my kids; well there's a big one. I was moving a big metal desk out of my basement with an appliance dolly (small tires) and the rise of each step was a little higher than the center of the tire and the dolly had to lean almost parallel to the stairs because of a low bulkhead exit making it extremely heavy to lift. I didn't want to bother my wife to push from the bottom as she was watching the babies upstairs. This decision ruined my back.

To anyone who doesn't have a back injury please remember; just because you can lift something doesn't mean you should. It's easy to think that either you can lift something or you can't. That's a false dichotomy, a third option is that you can but will injure yourself. Easy to forget that one when you're young and indestructible.
That third option turns you into an old man real fast.

[wjduke]

I have one major regret and that was marrying my second wife. Ruined me for many years and that happened in 86. I have a couple of what if's, maybe not regrets. What if I had stayed in the military...where would I be now? What if I got hooked up in the cable tv industry back in 1977 when I was in ND and had a chance to get in on the ground floor?

Bottom line is we are where are at this moment...decisions were made, good or bad.

[willtill]

I have some regrets... but I don't want to fixate on looking in the rear view mirror constantly.

Nothing but forward from here on out. Everything has been working out pretty good to date. Still breathing, functioning and alive.