It is time for Sunday’s Thought of the Week again.

I have been someone who has always tried to live my life without regret.

Regret to me is the most horrible emotion I can ever feel. Regret tells me that I have not lived my life to the fullest. It is the one emotion that causes me the most amount of pain and takes me a long time to forgive myself for.

Wayne Gretsky says

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take

If you believe something with all your heart, you must find the courage to follow this otherwise you will live regrets for the rest of your life.

So today’s thought is:

What is one shot in your life you didn’t take? What opportunity did you miss because of it and how has it caused you regret?

For me, there are several regrets, but I think the biggest shot I didn’t take was a result of my self-doubt and insecurities. I am seeing the result now of what could have happened to me if I had the courage to follow my dream and belief. The couple of years I wasted causes me a sharp pain of regret.

In 2007, I sat in my living room and wrote down some ideas about writing a book on how to travel the world, and having a blog and other websites to go along with it. A massive door of opportunity opened up for me that day and I didn’t take it. I didn’t even try. I just thought, due to underlying fear and doubt, that I couldn’t do it.

I closed the door on my dreams without even first researching to discover what I could do and how I could do it. My excuse was that Lonely Planet had the market and how could I ever compete with that? Who would ever want to read my stories anyway?

It took me until 2010 before I got my act together and started y Travel Blog, and look how quickly we had success. If only I started it back in 2007, I can only imagine, with pain, just where we would be sitting now. Hardly anyone was travel blogging back then.

All we can do is learn.

I’ve learned now that the best thing I can do when I have an idea that I believe in and am passionate about is to act on it. Forget my fears, forget my insecurities and just act.

I may win, I may lose but knowing this with certainty will make me feel so much better than the pain that comes with regret and never knowing.