Hugh Jackman: ‘In life, you don’t regret the things you do; you regret the things you don’t do.”
I start and end this post with two different quotes because, together, they feel like a small guide for living — or at least a reminder of what truly matters. They also make me think of my dad. As he got older, he would say his biggest regret was that he didn’t do enough with his life. What he meant wasn’t success or money — it was meaning. Memories. Travel. Taking chances. He felt he had played it safe too often.
He used to tell me, “You were never afraid to try.” The truth is, I was afraid — but I tried anyway. What he never realized is that I tried because of him. His words, his example, even his regrets… they pushed me forward more than he ever knew.
When we look back on our lives, there will always be things we could have done differently, choices we might have made, risks we wish we had taken. That’s simply part of being human. And that’s why the second quote resonates so deeply — it reminds us that life is about balance. We find our way somewhere in the middle, between what we hoped for and what actually happened.
We can’t control the past. We can only let it go so it doesn’t weigh down the future. Regret doesn’t have to be a burden; it can be a teacher. And if we’re lucky, it becomes the quiet nudge that helps us live a little braver than we did yesterday.
Epictetus: Control What You Can — Release What You Can’t. The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.”
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