In Hindsight

Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

-- Billy Wilder

Opportunities seem so clear in hindsight. They weren't when it was the present.

We beat ourselves up when we realize a great opportunity was missed, and it seems like we miss these opportunities often, doesn't it?

And in hindsight, we do.

Looking back at various offers and chances we've had, it does seem like that one thing was a clear winner. How could we not see it so easily?

Looking back, the path seems like it was practically highlighted for us. Why did we walk off the road?

Looking back, it simply looks as if we're just awful decision-makers. Are we just purposely self-sabotaging ourselves to avoid opportunity after opportunity?

In hindsight, it certainly feels that way. But in the present, it is never so clear.

In the present, we deal with the knowledge we already have, our current status, stress, timetables, thoughts, emotions, restrictions, challenges, worries, peer support (or not), and an infinite number of other factors that bring us to the present decision.

Sometimes we're right, and sometimes we're wrong. Sometimes we make the right call, and sometimes we don't. And sometimes we may have made the appropriate call, even though we ended up missing an amazing opportunity.

Yet we beat ourselves up over the lost chances, while not lifting ourselves up for the right choices we made. We focus on what we've missed, rather than on what we've gained.

But we don't see our gains as gains, cause in hindsight we only see what we've missed.

Can we just stop it already and move on from mistakes?

No easy remedy, except the realization that you win some and you lose some. That is just how the story goes :)

Forget hindsight. Be present.