Discipline is cheaper than regret

Today on Twitter:

Discipline is cheaper than regret. ~ @ShaneAParrish

It’s true, isn’t it? But why do we all struggle with discipline?

Unfortunately, discipline requires a high upfront payment right now, whereas regret is a loan not due in the long term or till old age.

As fallible human beings with cognitive biases, we’re consistently poor at anticipating the future, and usually accord more importance to the immediate, to what we can touch, see, feel, hear, in the here and the now.

Between the immediate discomfort now versus discomfort much much later, is it any wonder why people usually choose the latter?

But they don’t know about compound interest when it comes to regret.

That girl you didn’t kiss, the job you were too afraid to go for, the loved one you should have said “I love you” to more often, the adventure with your buddies you kick yourself for not going.

That emotional loan you took by foregoing your dreams, it compounds. It stabs at your heart, a little a day. In the end, it’s death by paper cuts. What coulda, shoulda, woulda, compounds and grows in weight, that by the time it’s due for payment, you’re going to go bankrupt trying to pay for it.

There, that’s the true cost of regret.

Discipline is cheaper than regret. Choose discipline.