Living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.

– Milan Kundera

How many times have you thought, over a failure to open, a failed opening, a random cockblock interrupting your pick-up, a failed LTR, etc, the famous what if?

We all know of many _what if_s. And yet, we cannot go back and relive our lives. Tough. As a geek, before reading Kundera, I’ve always thought about this in terms of computer games: you always have the save game, load game option. As a kid, I used the escape key, load game, etc. in my dreams to get out of nightmares. Now on the very rare times when I do have nightmares, I usually just kill the menace with my bare hands, fly away, and wake up with a smile.

Anyhow, even if we do live in the Matrix, it would be tough to implement save game/load game for everyone. So? Inner game solution: enjoy life as it is.

Beyond that, if you’re familiar with Texas Hold’em poker, you know that it’s a game of competence, with a random factor that evens out over lots of played hands. Luck evens out. In the long run, when you play enough hands, randomness becomes irrelevant. Small mistakes and what ifs become irrelevant. What remains is your competence.

By curing yourself of oneitis, you’ll also care less about what if’s. You’ll have options. Random ill lucks will become statistically insignificant. You cannot load game, but you can do start a new game.