The Old Man and the Sea- What You Can Do

Something that caught my eye while reading this book was this quote:
"Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is."

I feel that people should take in this quote and can learn a lot with it. It certain situations, we think of what we need that we don't have. We realize what we should have brought, said, or done. In these situations, though, you'll just be wasting time thinking about that. Yes, you messed up, but wallowing in self pity about it is only going to make things worse. It won't fix the situation. It doesn't make you feel any better, either, it just makes you feel even worse. You have to move on and realize what you have to do to fix whatever stressful situation you are currently in.

Things might be harder now, but you'll definitely learn from it. You could have used logic, gained charisma, found a personality trait you didn't even know you had in you. You'll probably even be happy that it happened. Maybe something really good came from that situation. The results don't have to be immediate, after all. The only thing you can do is move on now, so might as well make the most of it and find the good in the situation.

I don't really like people saying they regret something. I think I regret things sometimes, but then I realize that I wouldn't be the person I am today if I didn't make mistakes, and besides at the time you made the decision that you might regret it was what you wanted. People always think "I was so stupid back then" and all that, but if you didn't make those mistakes that you were 'stupid' for making, you wouldn't have learned from it, so maybe it wasn't wise, but now you know never to do that again! Things can always be worse.

Wow, I did not expect this blog to turn into some kind of optimist speech. Sorry for the cheesiness!

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.