Good morning!
Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.
The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to plan the trip, buy the ticket, and make the memory.
Did you know…
The Parthenon in Athens is more than 2,400 years old. Construction began in 447 BC and was fully completed by 432 BC, making the structure approximately 2,473 years old.
Almost There
Late this past Tuesday, we arrived home safely after spending more than a month in Greece.
The experience is over. The trip home was extraordinarily long. And adjusting to the time change has been a bit difficult.
But, I am grateful for the experience. I am grateful to have the means to travel. And I am very grateful to be sleeping in my own bed again.
Still, there is one moment from our last day in Greece that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.
That morning, we decided to make the trek up to the Parthenon.
It was hot. The walk was mostly uphill. But it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected, especially considering where the Parthenon sits.
As we were getting close to the final stretch, we stopped because we needed to check in for our flight home the following day.
So we found a bench and sat down.
While we were sitting there, a family sat on a bench across from us.
A husband. A wife. Three kids.
The couple appeared to be around my age, probably somewhere in their early to mid-50s.
And as we sat there, I couldn’t help but overhear part of their conversation.
The husband was struggling.
He said something along the lines of:
“I can’t walk anymore.”
“It’s too hot.”
“I’m dizzy.”
Then eventually:
“You go in. It’s OK. I’ll wait for you here. I just can’t take another step.”
His family continued on.
He stayed behind.
And just so we are clear, I am not passing judgment in the least.
I have had my fair share of difficult walks uphill on brutally hot days.
So this is not about whether he should have pushed harder.
It’s about the fact that he had made it almost all the way there.
Probably 90 or 95 percent of the way.
He traveled to Greece. He made it to Athens. He walked up toward one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world.
And then, just before the experience was complete, he stopped.
His wife and kids continued without him.
The Lesson
That experience made me think about regret.
We usually think about regret as something connected to big decisions.
The job we didn’t take. The person we didn’t call. The trip we cancelled.
But regret can also be much quieter than that.
Sometimes regret is getting almost all the way there and realizing the opportunity has passed.
Sometimes it’s assuming there will always be another chance.
Another trip. Another year. Another summer.
Another opportunity to do it with the people you love.
And maybe there will be.
But maybe there will not.
That’s the uncomfortable part.
We tend to live as if time is guaranteed.
And your actions today may feel harmless because there is no immediate consequence for postponing or cancelling the opportunity you have in front of you.
Until one day there is.
What’s the Point of All This?
The point is that you should stop assuming every meaningful experience can simply be rescheduled.
There are things in life you can do again.
But some experiences are tied to a particular moment in time.
Those moments have expiration dates whether we want to admit it or not.
That is why waiting can be so costly.
Sometimes the cost is losing the exact version of the experience you wanted.
The Final Point
That moment near the Parthenon stayed with me because it was such a simple reminder:
You do not always know when you are standing in front of an opportunity you may never get again.
So when something matters to you, don’t treat it as endlessly postponable.
Plan the trip. Buy the ticket. Make the memory.
Spend time with the people you care about while everyone is still here and able to show up.
Because one of the worst feelings in life has to be realizing you made it 95 percent of the way there...
And the last five percent disappeared forever.
A Destination Worth Traveling To
The Parthenon in Athens, Greece
Quote that caught my attention…
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
—Sydney J. Harris
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