Several months ago Phil Griffin and I flew out to join Chuck Spencer at his summer home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It was an amazing trip and created memories I will keep always.
It didn’t hurt that we drove into Montana one afternoon and explored the route to Glacier National Park. It’s a tremendous place to visit, but Virginia Russell’s grandson Eli Hausman chose to do me one better. He has enrolled at Montana State University and will be moving to Bozeman within a few weeks. He expects to have the time of his life.
Eli’s decision reminds me of my own daughter Lauren who, at age 26, decided to move to the island of St. John which has been her home ever since. I remember thinking at the time, “I wish I had that keen a sense of adventure when I was 26.”
I didn’t have a whole lot of self-awareness when I was 26, either. I would never have had the courage to pull up stakes and move to a Caribbean island at 26, or move to Montana after graduating high school.
Wishing you had done something when you were younger causes regret. Wondering what the future will look like at any age causes wonderment.
Ten years from now, what will the older you wish the younger you had done? Is it a trip you’ve always wanted to go on? Is it investing in more relationships? Is it finally writing that book? Is it moving to the Caribbean? Or Montana? Or Manhattan?
Think you can’t do it? Think again. You’ve got your entire future. Don’t look back in regret. Look forward in hope. It makes life a whole lot more enjoyable.
