Made Some Dumb Choices—Now I Make Smarter Ones

Do you think it’s worse to constantly dwell in the past, or constantly worry about the future?

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Alright, let me just get straight to the point—between constantly dwelling on the past and constantly worrying about the future, I think worrying about the future is way worse.

I’ve done some dumb stuff in my past. I mean, who hasn’t? When I look back, there were definitely moments where I shake my head and wonder what the hell I was thinking. But here’s the thing—I don’t sit around beating myself up over those mistakes. I learned from them. That’s the difference.

I don’t see the past as this giant cloud of regret. I see it more like a library of lessons. Every mistake, every bad decision, every time I thought I knew it all—I take that stuff and use it. I was young, I was impulsive, I was stubborn. But now? I’m smarter because of it. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but definitely not the same guy I was a few years ago.

The past doesn’t scare me. The future? That’s a different story.

It’s the not knowing that gets me. You can’t prepare for everything. You can have a plan, sure, but life has a way of laughing at your plans and flipping everything upside down. The future brings this pressure, like you always have to be doing more, achieving more, fixing things before they even break. It’s like trying to play chess with a blindfold on—every move feels like a guess.

And let’s be real: it’s exhausting. Worrying about what might happen, what could go wrong, what you’re not doing fast enough—it’s like carrying around a backpack full of bricks every day. I’ve had nights lying awake thinking about stuff that hasn’t even happened yet. Meanwhile, the past is just sitting there like, “Hey man, I already taught you this lesson, chill.”

So yeah, if I had to pick, I’d say future-worry is the heavier burden. At least with the past, I’ve got a record to look at, something concrete. With the future, it’s all fog and “what ifs.”

Bottom line: I respect my past because it shaped me, even the messy parts. But I try not to let the future shake me too much. I’ve made it this far, haven’t I? I figure if I keep learning, stay grounded, and trust myself a little more, I’ll be alright.

And if not, well… I’ll just chalk it up as another lesson for future-me to look back on.