Get Over the What Ifs

What if the grass is greener on the other side? Or worse, what if the grass was greener, and you missed the opportunity?

I am sure we have all had lost loves, or at least locked glances that could have been the one, if only. We have all had missed job opportunities or jobs we could have at least gone after a little harder. Some of us may even have been fired from jobs that we should have handled differently. We have all said something to someone we shouldn't have and wished we could have rolled it back in as it was coming out. Is what I am writing resonating with anyone today? I thought so.


With so many choices, so many decisions, and so many temptations, we often wonder how things would be different had we taken a different path, made a different choice, or kept our mouths shut. We’ve all experienced this in some way; we are all human after all.


So, my point is that we need to get over the “what ifs” and accept the choices we’ve made. The question is how. We are not all analysts, but we certainly carry those “what ifs” with us. We should give ourselves a moment to think about that dream, the “what could have been” or the “if only I said or did” that make us human. We should think about it only long enough to learn something from it and then move quickly into the thoughts of why things turned out the way they did. We will probably find that everything does happen for a reason, and maybe that job we did not take or the relationship we did not start was truly meant for another person at that moment. The people we did meet along the way and the jobs we did take are much more important than the people we could have known or the jobs we could have taken.

It’s important to differentiate what is real and what is not. If the grass seems greener on the other side of the pasture, maybe take a second look. If the regrets are real, do something about it. Apologize, fess up, try again, or change direction. Being human does allow for some latitude, some freedom to dream and think, and some room to correct mistakes. Then we need to move on, live with our choices, and start taking better care of our own grass.