Everyday Canvas

Discipline and Regret

Prompt “There are two major pains in life. The pain of discipline and the pain of regret. The first weighs ounces, whereas the latter weighs tons.”
—Jim Rohn
Concerning any area of life, which one of the two pains are you better at?


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Even though I am not a shining star, I am better at discipline, but if there is anyone to thank for it, I owe my “somewhat” discipline, pained or not, to the all-girls school I attended way back when. In those olden days, females were trained more strictly for achievement and production rather than for screaming their heads off on things they knew little to nothing about.

As to the pain of regrets, I used to be quite good at it at one time, a much earlier time. Then, I re-evaluated my situation and decided to do away with regret altogether. My reasoning is that I did the best I could with the possibilities and the information I had at that time. Case closed! In fact, all cases of regret are closed.

Oh, really? Although this is no biggie, Saturday, I had planned to go to the local library. A trip there and back that wouldn’t take more than half an hour, but I got busy and forgot all about it. Then, at night, when I realized what I didn’t do, “Darn, you idiot!” I scolded myself, but immediately. I realized that I was falling into the regret trap, and I apologized to myself.

Now, I’ll have to go to the library on Tuesday and pay late fees because our library is closed on Sundays and Mondays. That’s okay, too, since late fees, as well as donations, may help the library buy more books. And I am really good at paying for books.