Never regret!

“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, if taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”.

I don’t recall who wrote that, Shakespeare I think, but it might have been John Webster, or possibly someone else. Anyway, it is a very famous quote which perfectly sums up that you should grab opportunities when you can because you never know, they just might lead you to your heart’s desire.

How many of us spend our lives hankering after something which might have been, or regretting lost chances? I know I certainly have and for some things still do. I regret not standing up for things I wanted at the time or that I believed to be right either because I didn’t have the courage or I just wanted to be rid of things and so took the easy way out. I regret not having more involvement in things which were important to me and in so not doing, seeing them run away from me in a direction I would not have chosen nor would I have wished to take. I regret not having the courage to push my career in the direction I wanted when I was younger, and so drifting into my present job which is unsatisfying, tiring and pretty thankless (although it does – just – pay the bills).

I also regret some things that I have done, such as overspending and being landed with a huge credit card bill, offending some people whose opinion I actually did care about, and a whole raft of other things that a public blog is probably not the right place to expand upon (make of that what you may!).

But life is too short to spend it regretting things. This weekend just gone was when we had our big financial planning discussion, which is probably why I am feeling slightly philosophical about this sort of thing. Not being in a good position financially is something I have got used to over the years, but this time we could really see light at the end of the tunnel even if it does mean having a couple of quite lean years whilst jobs sort themselves out and debts get paid off. So it was a positive discussion and didn’t really focus on the negative at all.

We have plans for the next few years, and it would be good to be rid of work commitments in our late fifties or at the latest early sixties so that we can do some of the things we want to while we still have the health and energy to do so. I know too many people who have left their plans and dreams until retirement, only to be cheated of their fun by ill health or worse. I don’t want that to be me.

I find austerity hard. I am a natural spender, unlike my parents who were natural savers and never seemed to mind the hardship which that occasionally brought. But with a positive plan and not a headful of regrets I know I can do it. I do intend, when in the midst of the flood, to grab my chance and go with it to my fortune. Wish me luck!