Living With No Regrets Isn’t the Point

Life comes with mistakes, failures, and sacrifices. The goal isn’t to erase regret—it’s to move with intention so you don’t miss the moments that matter most.

Author

Clay Garrett
October 9th, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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Morning—it’s Clay.

I ran a social media ad recently that drew a comment I couldn’t stop thinking about. It pushed back hard against something Larry Hagner said, and while the guy missed the point, his words opened up a reflection I think is worth sharing with you.🔥

Living With No Regrets Isn’t the Point

Recently, I re-ran a social media ad featuring Larry Hagner saying, “The definition of hell is meeting the man you could have become on your deathbed.”

Someone fired back: “Life has regrets. It has failure. It has sacrifice. Why create a world where people compare themselves to a version of life that doesn’t exist? How about teaching people to make the best of what they’ve got?”

Here’s the thing—he wasn’t wrong about regrets and failure. They’re part of being human. But that was never the point of Larry’s line. The point isn’t to live perfectly, or to win every time. The point is to live with intention—to show up fully so that the regrets you do have aren’t the ones you could have avoided.

Think about it this way: Louisiana-Monroe knows they’re not going to beat Alabama. But that’s not the point. The point is leaving it all on the field and doing the best you can with what you have.

  • You don’t regret losing to Alabama. You regret not giving your all.

  • You regret the nights you scrolled your phone instead of playing with your kids.

  • You regret when they leave for college, and you realize you don’t really know your wife.

  • You regret when your buddy asked you to go to that concert, and you stayed home because you were too proud of all the vacation days you never used.

Life isn’t about avoiding regret completely; it’s about avoiding the regrets that come from not showing up. Not trying. Not giving your best when you could have.

Regret doesn’t come from failure. It comes from holding back when the things that matter most needed your whole heart.

Quote of the Week

❝

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.

Seneca

We spend so much energy trying to stretch time, as if the problem is not having enough. But most of the time, the real problem isn’t scarcity… it’s waste. Endless scrolling, half-hearted effort, missed conversations. The hours slip away not because they were too few, but because we didn’t use them for what mattered most.

The antidote isn’t to live faster. It’s to live fuller and to give our best to the people and moments right in front of us.

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4 Things That Secretly Steal Your Time

Mindless Scrolling – Almost nothing on social media is worth your time. You’re usually chasing a dopamine hit, not something meaningful.

Idle Comparison – Measuring your life against someone else’s highlight reel is dangerous. You know they’re exaggerating—but you can’t help believing it.

Unmade Decisions – “…while there are many bad decisions you can make in your life, perhaps none is worse than making no decision.” – Mark Manson

Multitasking – Multitasking is a lie. Your brain doesn’t work that way. You’re not the exception. Stop it.

I could have padded this list with ten items. But why waste your time with filler when these four are enough?

I’ve got some really awesome interviews coming up over the next few months (not a podcast—don’t call it a podcast) along with some resources I’m really proud of. Stay tuned.

Until next time—
Keep the fires burning,
— Clay

P.S. I’d rather grow Campfire Gentleman through real connections than algorithms. If something here resonated with you, forward it to one friend who might enjoy it too. That simple act helps more than you know—and keeps me off the social media hamster wheel.

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