"For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been."...John Greenleaf Whittier
If you got hit by a bus today, and had the spooky prescience to write your own epitaph right now...what would you say?
Would your words be filled with regrets?
When you look back at 2005, what are the things that you most regret NOT doing? In the early months of 2006, are you on track to NOT DOING them again?
Sales trainer, Jim Meisenheimer says that the best way to transform regrets into opportunities is to set them up as personal goals. He suggests writing down five things that you regret not doing last year. With this in mind, he says to make a list of the five things that you'd like to accomplish in 2006, professionally and personally.
Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph...with few regrets I presume. In the months prior to his death, Jefferson designed his own gravestone, and wrote, "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious toleration & Father of the University of Virginia."
None of us will ever have the chance of comparable achievements to President Jefferson, of course. However, we can always take control over our next, immediate steps.
"What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now."...Buddha