“I regret not making choices in my life sooner than I did. How do I stop thinking "if only I..."?”

Another soul answered...

Live life a little impulsively. Go on those screen-free quests or slacker quests I think they're called? Get a certificate in something random(some are even for free), write a letter and hide it in a park or library, make a zine, explore your hometown. Maybe keep a journal of things you want to do and refer to it when you have freetime?

Another soul answered...

(apologies in advance i dont expect people to read this i just like yapping lowkey) Yeah I used to beat myself up with "if only" questions a lot. The answer is: the big bang (okay, i know the big bang has been debunked basically but it doesn't matter) This is kind of a weird solution but JUST HEAR ME OUT: I kind of just figured that every process in the universe has a series of events that must take place the way that they did. I don't believe in alternate timelines, even if the human imagination can easily imagine that. People like to separate things into labels, categories, but these catagories are completely made up in our minds. For example you know what a 'tree' is, but in reality the concept of a tree is not really defined, to the universe, the atoms of a tree are the same of that to the atoms in a rock, if you get what I mean. There are even species of plants which are not exactly a tree, and kind of are at the same time!- bending the definition of the 'tree' category and thus proving that it is made up. Another example: we like to separate spans of time in our life into neat categories called 'events'. For example, you tripping over this morning is one 'event' and you brushing your teeth was another, separate 'event'. But this idea of an 'event' isn't fixed, and is determined by what span of time the person decides to include in this 'event'. With this same logic, the entire timeline of the universe can be seen as 'one event' as well as the entirety of the universe 'one object' because the definition of what is 'one' is not a concept that actually effects reality- it is only one WE have made up to understand the world better. Sorry if I'm not making sense here, im kind of bad at explaining, but I swear it actually helps me!!!! Another thing I'd like to point out is that we also make up how important certain 'events' and 'objects' and 'categories' are. For example, we generally consider the beginning of the universe eg 'big bang' as a very significant event, since we understand it to be the event that precedes EVERYTHING that we know and love today. And because of that, we cannot imagine an alternate timeline where the 'big bang' did not exist!! But... for some reason we are perfectly fine with imaging a 'less important' event such as: 'tripping over this morning' as something that could have not happened, if for example you had just walked more carefully. BUT, the importance we attach to these events are NOT ACTUALLY REALITY. In reality, 'tripping over this morning' and the 'big bang' were BOTH DESTINED TO HAPPEN. And, these events are actually just as important to each other. The importance we place on them are not actually real. Bringing it back the 'the universe is one object' thing. The separation between objects is imaginary, as well as events (as I said before). The reason why this is significant is because 'tripping over this morning' is not only NOT 'less important' than the 'big bang', but it is THE SAME EVENT. It is an inseperable part of the big bang, and the big bang is a part of you falling over. So yeah, next time you think "I wish I had tried that sooner" or "I should have known better" you need to understand that your life was always going to happen the way that it did. The same way that in order to learn how to run: first you have to crawl, you have to learn how to walk, then you have to fall and fail before you are finally able to run. This is the logical pattern for how learning happens and your WHOLE LIFE is the same way. You couldn't have known better because you didn't complete the steps necessary beforehand!! And that's okay!

Another soul answered...

there is no "try", just "do"