“Regrets, I’ve had a few and then again, too few to mention” is a line from one of Frank Sinatra’s classic anthems My Way.

It’s less about the song and more about the regrets that I want to share with you.

I’ve just finished a book which has affected me in a most profound, and somewhat surprising, way.

The book “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig was recommended to me by a client and I bought it knowing nothing about it but I appreciate a recommendation from someone whose opinion I value.  

Well – crikey.  From the word go I was hooked.

The premise is about the Book of Regrets we can carry around with us – sometimes for ever. 

“I wish I’d done X” and “I should have said YES to Y” and “If only I’d done Z when I had the chance” etc etc…

The book’s protagonist, Nora, is able to access the Book of Regrets from The Midnight Library and go into the decisions she could have made differently.  And then see how/what happens or happened.

Apart from being a brilliant writer with such a careful use of the language, descriptions, storylines, what it’s done for me is this.

You may be like me  and carry some of your regrets around with you.

As Snowy my husband says “Kay, you can’t deal backwards so I don’t bother trying” when I’ve asked him about any of his regrets.

What you can do though is learn from them AND then move on.  Let go.

I’ve found, as I traced back some of my bigger regrets that – just like Nora in the book – you could arrive in your ‘other’ story and be a lot less happier, satisfied, healthy, wealthy, wise than you already are!  

Joining the dots with the decisions I’ve made, behaviours I’m not proud of, the routes I’ve taken and then realising how the decisions led me to where I am now and there’s no undoing them AND nor do I want to.

I’ve put the Book of Regrets firmly back on the shelf.

So.  Whilst this might sound whimsical to you on this sunny Friday at the end of Q1 2023, for me it isn’t whimsical at all. It’s freeing.  It’s peacemaking with my past.  It’s forward facing (is there another way?!)

In other news…

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If Snowy hadn’t been colourblind, one of the things he’d have loved to be was a fast jet Fighter Pilot.  Well, whilst he doesn’t regret he’s not, he was affected by watching Maverick & Top Gun recently.  I sent him on a Phantom F-4 simulator experience as a birthday treat.  What fun he had landing on an aircraft carrier in his jet!