Blogocentric Formulations

Changing Course

Prompt ▼

If you had the opportunity to turn back time what would you change about the course of your life and why?

I generally don't have regrets about the course of my life because it's very possible that the things in my life I have now that I love wouldn't exist if I had done things differently. If I said I would go back and get out of or pursue a different relationship, I wouldn't have our kids, or the great experiences I've had with my wife. If I said I would go back and avoid a particular mistake, I wouldn't have the wisdom I gained from going through that particular trial. So with the caveat that I'm not really sure I'd turn back time at all, if I had to, I would probably change one or all of the following things:


1. Unhealthy Habits

I spent a lot of years not exercising and eating like calories didn't count. And I've spent a lot of years overweight and out of shape as a result. If I could change the course of my life so that I could have spent the past 10-20 years making better choices in order to feel better physically (and not have to go through the current struggle to lose the extra weight!), that'd be pretty nice.


2. More Risks At Work

I was admittedly very timid with my career choices. My parents really pressured me to prioritize being able to support myself and I took a lot of jobs (and turned down quite a few) because of the financial component. I sometimes wonder if I'd be in a different and better place professionally if I took risks like stepping off the corporate track and steady paycheck in order to get a job in a writers room, or if I'd said yes to opportunities that might have required me to travel more, or step outside my comfort zone. My career has been largely comfortable, but I often wonder how it would have been different if I had taken more risks instead.


3. Writing

If I ended up going back in time, I would have taken my writing more seriously. At the time, I always believed I was too tired or too busy to write and now in retrospect I recognize that it was instead closer to laziness and fear of failure. Had I the ability to do it all over again, I would love to be able to teach myself that lesson earlier on, so I didn't have to spend so many years being so afraid of living up to my potential as a writer that I ended up not really writing very much at all.


4. Live Somewhere Else For A While

Being born and having lived my entire life in California, I wish I would have taken the opportunity to live somewhere else for a while. Maybe a semester abroad, or a gap year, or more mission trips, or just more leisure travel in general. I've been fortunate enough to have taken some amazing vacations in different spots around the world, but I do always wonder what it would be like to have lived for a season in a place completely different from California. Maybe somewhere on the East Coast or an international city somewhere.