So it’s officially day two of the blog challenge and here’s the second topic… writing about something that I regret not having done last year.

This one is a bit of a thinker as I declared that last year was going to be “my year”… and I felt it kinda was. I decided it was time to leave the Rogers’ mother ship and head back out into the world, and did. Last year I found balance and guess I can say that I regret not making the hard decisions earlier. Funny thing about regret though, it really gets you nowhere… and by living in the past mulling over missed opportunities and regrets we don’t allow ourselves to be open to future experiences. Last year, “my year”, I opened myself to new experiences and tried new things. One of those things was to join a local roller derby league and learn to referee. At the time I was too chicken to join as a player and once immersed I quickly realized that this was in fact what I wanted to do – I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines. But instead I continued to Ref as I wanted to honor my original commitment and am only this year training to be a player.

Regardless of what the commitment is, personal or professional, my word is my word. And in PR, your word is what can make or break your credibility. (See how I tied that back to PR?) In any position, but especially in the PR industry, credibility is the backbone of success. If you don’t have your credibility, you don’t have anything but regret. And regret we’ve already determined, is counterproductive. Life is about looking at every opportunity presented, determining if it’s right for you, right now. If it’s not, then move on.  Regret for missed opportunities comes down to fear. The opportunity was the right one and the timing was probably right too, but fear got in the way…

This is what happened with me and roller derby. I wanted to play, but was fearful. As I look back on my last year of reffing, keeping my commitment may have put me a bit behind in my derby ‘career’, but it did provide me with an advantage – I know how to play by the rules.