Two of the saddest words in the English language are "if only". I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words. The two words 1 regret, lost opportunities,mistakes, and disappointment. And sometimes the words "if only" go with2 disasters. Think about how many times you have heard about something awful happening, 3 by "if only he had called her back to make sure she was okay" or "if only I had examined that noise. . . " or "if only they had made sure the gate to the pool clicked behind them. . . ".
My father-in-law is 4 in our family for saying, "Apply an extra minute to do it right. " He must be doing something 5 , since he's 91 years old and still making sense.
I always 6 to live by the "extra minute" rule. Sometimes it only takes seconds to make sure I write the words down 7 , or check some information on the Internet, or move an object 8 before it trips someone.
And of course when my children were young and likely to cause all kinds of troubles, I lived and breathed the "extra minute"9 . I always thought about what I could do to 10 an "if only" moment, whether it was something simple like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter,or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the 11 corners of a glass coffee table.
I know there will still be 12 when I have to say "if only" about something, but my life is surely more peaceful because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that 13 . And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to 14 a personal connection, I know that I'm doing the right thing. I'm buying myself peace of mind and that's the best kind of 15 for my emotional well-being.
