Don’t regret what you could have done

In May 2016 we reached an exciting milestone as we started our second year of Mastermind.  I wrote an article at the time for our Cloud9 magazine and I want to share it with you here as there are some important lessons in it:

“We have a much bigger group this year and having now completed all the initial face to face 1:1s I’m incredibly excited by what God has in store for the group. I’ve been amazed at how, even though every member of the group is totally unique and different from the others, at the heart of their challenges are many common themes. I guess it’s not so surprising – we’re all human – we are all made in God’s image and most of us desire to be in a loving relationship. I’m not giving any confidences away to say there have been quite a lot of tears in our meetings. Tears from strong, capable people who’ve accomplished so much in their lives – and who often present a picture of themselves to the world that doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s really going on in their hearts. There’s fear there, lack of confidence and often bewilderment about the way their lives have turned out.  Sounds familiar – if you search your heart and mind – I’m sure you’ll agree. These are common things for all of us.

 But the wonderful thing is this group of people are determined to face every challenge – and I know in doing so they are going to be greatly rewarded.

Now each of them had to make a decision to take action and sign up for Mastermind. It’d have been so easy to put it off (and I bet there are members who did just that – and for you you’ve missed the boat.)

I’m so terribly sad in my life to have missed the boat in just the same way – and I just hope I’ve learnt my lesson now from the experience. Let me tell you more.

 I used to keep my horse at a local DIY yard down the road. On the farm there lived this most lovely of lovely men – an old man in his 80s who was so friendly and so easy to talk to. He was called Peter and he and I made friends and I loved spending time with him when I visited the yard. He was widowed shortly after I got to know him and then a couple of years later met a lady on holiday and struck up a close friendship with her. It was lovely to see him so happy again whenever she visited him or when he’d returned from a visit to her.

Now during the winter months my husband loves to cook Sunday lunch. For ages I talked about getting Peter and his lady friend around to lunch. But somehow time ticked on (in fact I’m embarrassed to say that years went by) and I never quite got round to fixing a time for Peter to come over. And then suddenly Peter got ill and went to hospital, and although I visited him there (thank God) he never came out and a few months ago died. I will forever kick myself that I didn’t get that lunch organised. There was no excuse really for not having done so – I guess I just never got round to it, and I always thought I could do it later. And now there is no later – that opportunity has forever passed and I’m sad.

But I have learnt a lesson (I hope) which is that when I have a good idea and I know I want to do something, I’m going to make sure I catch myself putting it off (especially for no good reason). Because now I know time is short and sometimes opportunities come to us that don’t last forever – and I know I don’t want regrets that I could avoid in my life.

I hope you don’t have regrets like this. But looking forward, if you think of doing something, as the Nike slogan says ‘Just Do It’, your life will be ever so much richer for doing so.”

I trust you’ve found reading this useful and it’s given you food for thought.