By Victor Uyanwanne

Are you caught in the web of wishing that you were what you are not? I want you to “stop wishing and start living.” What are the things you should stop wishing?

In the light of this, I have come up with the list of a few things should grow up beyond and stop regretting over:

If we continue to live in the past, we will not enjoy the present and we will mess up the future. This is why we should leave the unpleasant past where it belongs and cease from regretting over some things we cannot change in our lives.

1.  I wish I was younger!

It’s obvious you are older now, so why still cry over spilt milk? You missed some good opportunities when you were younger, but you also had some good memories. Now that you are older, you can’t get them back anymore.

Grow up and make the most of your older age now. Otherwise, the older you get, the wider your margin of regrets becomes.

If you spend today regretting about yesterday, you will spend tomorrow regretting about today.

2.  I wish I had more time!

Excuse me please! Hasn’t God given all of us 24 hours in a day? How come your neighbour had enough time to do what he had to do and you didn’t? How come your colleague was able to deliver that time-bound report and you weren’t?

Plan well, prioritize, do what you have to do when you have to do it and you will see you have all the time in the world to do the things that matter to you.

There is always enough time to do anything we really want to do. Someone once said, “It is the thing you really don’t want to do that you don’t have time for.”

3.  I wish I married a different person than my spouse!

Come off it please! What if your spouse too has the same thoughts about you?

You were so dumb to propose to the person you got married to and she too was so dumb to scream “Yes, yes. I will marry you.” That’s your decision, it’s too late to change that now.

Whomever you got married to has become the right person to be married to. Do away with all regrets about whom you got married to. Make that relationship work now. Shut the door on the divorce option and you will see that no unhappy marriage is irredeemable.

4.  I wish I had more education

Formal education is good but that’s not the greatest ticket to success and happiness in life. If you think you need more education than you currently have, go get it. But if it’s no longer possible for you to do so, get over it and stop regretting.

True education could come from other places besides the four walls of a university. In any case, never stop learning.

5.  I wish I was a billionaire!

I am not being pessimistic if I say that some wishes will never come through. But that doesn’t have to be yours. Just that as a 16th century English Language proverb says, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”. Simply put, people don’t always have everything they wish for.

If you want to become a billionaire, work towards it. You are neither too young nor too old to become a billionaire. The last time I checked on the Forbes list of world’s richest men, it had both young and old people on it.

In any case, if you have found out how to become a billionaire, please  let me in on it because I am searching too.

6.   I wish I was born into a rich family!

Thank you for letting me know that your father is neither a Bill Gates (the richest man on Earth) nor an Aliko Dangote (the richest black man on Earth). But that’s as far as it should go. Never blame your parents for not being as rich as you wished they should be.

It is neither yours nor their fault. But know one thing, your life can be better than those of your parents. You can be richer than your parents if you properly take your good chances in life. That’s what you should be doing and not regretting over the economy of your parents.

7.  I wish I chose a different career path!

Fortunate are those who made the right choices as far as their career is concerned. If you are not one of such people, there is no need to keep regretting over it. It’s either you make the most of the career path you are on now or you make a career switch.

I once read the story of a Nigerian school teacher who later went on to become a medical doctor at the age of 50 years. When a journalist asked him about it, he responded, “I have always wanted to be a doctor.”

I thought that was fantastic until I heard about Genevie Kocourek who achieved similar fit at the age of 59 years.

8.  I wish I was created as a different gender!

Why can’t you accept who you are? Your gender at birth is God-given.

Are you a man wishing you were a woman or a woman wishing you were a man? That’s of no use! You are good enough as either a man or woman you were created to be.

Please share what you think.

© Copyright | Victor Uyanwanne