Disappointment vs. Regret

Every morning, I wake up.  I pull myself up and out of bed and begin my daily routine.  I go to a job that allows me to function in a state of mediocrity, at best.  I know that I'm not curing cancer here.  I'm not making a name for myself by being the accountant at XYZ Law Firm.  The story echoes the same for a lot of people I know.  The difference is, I can honestly say I have zero regrets.  Do I have disappointments?  Absolutely!  You can have disappointment without regret.  They are in no way mutually exclusive... 

I had an interesting conversation with a friend a few weeks ago in which we defined being "intrinsically happy."  Webster defines the word intrinsic as " belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing."  So, are we born with inherent happiness or sadness?  Is it somehow coded in our DNA?  Are we fated to it?  Basically, I was struggling in my own mind with the idea of being intrinsically happy in my life all the while having certain disappointment.  Disappointment didn't mean that I was somehow doomed to a life of perpetual unhappiness, right??  I felt happy, so where do I put the disappoinment??  Right smack dab in the middle somewhere of daily life and my intrinsic happiness.  Cause it happens.  But, regret does not have to.  Whew!  I felt better.

I ask myself daily, "Self, what have you done today that has contributed to the positive energy of the world?  How have you made a difference?"  A lot of days, I've found that I am disappointed with my answer.  But, I am in no way disppointed with my life.  I believe that we all have a reason to be here.  We all have a "place" and we all have our own race to run.  I've spent the better part of 30 years trying to figure out the "why" part of my existence.  I've had to make decisions with only the knowledge I had at that very moment in time and I've had to live with the consequences of those decisions.  The key to all of this for me has been "acceptance."  This is not to say I've just accepted the aforementioned mediocrity and have decided that this is all my life has to offer, so, that's that.  No.  I have accepted that my history is what it is and I do not want to waste time or life trying (and failing) to re-write even one little page in my life's "book." 

An example:
Am I disappointed that I am not working at a hospital as an RN right now?  Yes. 
Do I *regret* not taking the steps that would have allowed that to happen?  No. 

You see, I truly believe that we are all where we are supposed to be right now, at this absolute point in time.  Everything in our lives has made us who we are.  All of our experiences build on themselves and put us in this place.  If you don't like where you are in your own story, close the chapter and start a new one.  It really is that simple. 

Accept the disappointments and erase the regret.  Happy looks good on EVERYONE!

:) LAH