{"id":30486,"date":"2016-09-22T06:37:25","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=30486"},"modified":"2016-09-22T22:11:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T05:11:18","slug":"what-if-you-never-regretted-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/22\/what-if-you-never-regretted-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"What if You Never Regretted Anything?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Downtown
Downtown LA, 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If we never had any regrets in life, I think many of us would be a lot happier. Regret is the demon of the past which holds us back. Regret is fear that debilitates us from future action. Regret is letting the phantoms of past actions continue to haunt us for no good reason.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have a lot of regrets from the past that still haunt me today. But what I try to do is this: re-interpret my regret in a positive way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For example, I ask myself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What positive lesson can I learn from this regrettable event or action?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

There are a ton of photos that I wish I had taken, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Because fear held me back.<\/p>\n

Rather than regretting it, I tell myself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The next time I see a scene that makes me afraid, I will take it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And the next time, I find myself more emboldened, and to push my boundaries and limits.<\/p>\n

Everything happens for a reason<\/h2>\n
\"Downtown
Downtown LA, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am also a deep believer in the idea that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153everything happens for a reason.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re spiritual or religious\u00e2\u20ac\u201d this is an easy concept to understand. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you can think, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everything doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen for a reason\u00e2\u20ac\u201d but it happened. Now that it has happened, what positive lesson can I learn from it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In life, we always have the choice of re-interpreting events that have happened to us in the past. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the ability to change what actually happened.<\/p>\n

For example, I grew up with a lot of stress and anxiety as a child\u00e2\u20ac\u201d because I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure whether my mom would be able to pay the rent at the end of every month. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve re-interpreted that as teaching me a life lesson: to value money, and to also create information that is open and free (to those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a lot of money).<\/p>\n

I think about all the arguments I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had with loved ones\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found that whenever I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said or done something I regretted, it helped me become a better person. And my relationships have improved as a result.<\/p>\n

If you want to become the best boxer in the world, you need to fight the toughest opponents. You will get bruised, bleed, and break bones. But as a result, you will get stronger, more resilient, and be able to conquer even the toughest opponents. So when life throws you shit, difficult situations, pain, and misery \u00e2\u20ac\u201d know that it happened for a reason. To make yourself stronger.<\/p>\n

Learn from your mistakes<\/h2>\n
\"Downtown
Downtown LA, 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So friend the last thing I want to leave you with is this: no regrets. Only learning. Re-interpret whatever negatively happens to you in a positive way. Grow stronger. Empower yourself, by putting yourself in challenging situations. Keep growing.<\/p>\n

Become the best possible version of yourself you can be. And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the demons of the past hold you back.<\/p>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we never had any regrets in life, I think many of us would be a lot happier. Regret is the demon of the past which holds us back. Regret is fear that debilitates \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}