I have done many things in my life that didn’t work out. I have found myself on adventures of which I had imagined fantastic and romantic ends that never came to be. Many of these adventures had their fair share of pain and hardship. Yet I don’t regret these adventures, in that I don’t regret who I am now. I am the sum of all my past adventures good and bad; the sum of folly and foolishness, fun and failure. I love who I am now, or at least always do my best to love and accept who I am. Part of that journey is to accept and not regret my past. For then I can truly accept and enjoy who I am, right now.

Acceptance for me is not a passive operation. It is not a resignation but an embrace. My past is what made me and what set the stage for my next set of challenges and growth. To have the power to truly change my path would be to die. To cease being who I am and become something unknown. I’d much rather be conscious on that journey. The journey into a new known.

Things not working out is not a reason to regret doing them. Failing at things is a poor reason to begrudge them. Now that I am an adult who’s eyes look into the future, my failures are no longer chains behind me that I have to shed, they’re guide posts, lessons, tools, and stories that help move me toward what I’m creating.

If you are regretting your past, start looking to your future. Release the chains to your hardships so that you can gain their wisdom. Start doing things that may fail, specifically because failure helps you grow.