#29: Choices in Life Paths and Regret

When facing major life decisions, do you think about how you might regret it?

Growing up as a competitive athlete in a sport that took precedence over school, the concept of how discipline, choices, and luck intertwined to lead to success was drilled into my head every single day. An extra long workout meant you just inched ahead closer to your goals. Not going to Sunday practice meant you weren’t fully dedicated to winning. Giving up on things like friend hangouts for practice time, having a normal social life for a kid, and time off were not easy lessons for a kid to learn, but it was part of the sacrifice required for the path to becoming an Olympian. This framework reinforced that I had to follow a series of steps to stay on track with the plan, in order to achieve everything that supposedly came at the end: happiness, success, and a destiny fulfilled.

Which is why when I was 16 and knew that I needed to walk away from the sport, it was one of the most painful decisions I’ve ever made. Despite my eating disorder crumbling me from the inside, out, making the choice to walk away felt like I was willingly leaving my pre-destined path of success and walking into the inevitable arms of regret. When tussling with the decision, I kept getting asked, “What if you regret it??”

As I continued to make choices in life that redirected my path, I began to really understand that life is anything but linear, and I believe that each person has many different available paths to reach satisfaction, joy, and purpose in life (side note: I’m speaking here about people who have the privilege of choices— I recognize not every human in this world has the fortune to have multiple choices in how life is lived).