Short term pain vs. long term regret

In the short term, we often rue the chances we take and the small mistakes we make. Those mistakes cause us pain, and we are averse to pain.

In the long term, we often rue the chances and the opportunities we don’t take, often because we were avoiding short term pain.

In the short term, we regret the things we do. In the long term, we regret the things we don’t do. In essence, it is often worth withstanding the short term pain to avoid long term regret.