What can a Roman emperor, a Japanese swordsman, a Mongol conqueror, and a Persian poet actually teach you about the decision you've been putting off?

In this episode, Abi walks into the lives of Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, & Rumi to unpack one uncomfortable idea: the things you don't do haunt you longer than the things you try and fail at. Real history, real psychology, and one honest question, what are you waiting for?

Citations:

A very public replication of the temporal pattern to people's regrets; large-scale museum-based replication of the Gilovich & Medvec finding that long-term regret is associated more strongly with inaction than action. Published in PMC, 2023. URL: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10282588/
Liao S, Xiao W, Wang Y, "Sex Differences in the Effects of Cognitive Reappraisal Training on Conditioned Fear Responses," International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022; 19(23):15837. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192315837 | URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9739676/
Historical sources for Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), Socrates (Plato's Apology and Crito), Cato the Younger (Plutarch's Lives), Genghis Khan (The Secret History of the Mongols), Napoleon's campaign at Austerlitz, Rumi's relationship with Shams of Tabriz, and Sun Tzu's The Art of War are drawn from primary historical and classical texts rather than peer-reviewed psychology, these are presented as historical narrative, not scientific claims, and are not subject to the peer-review citation requirements above.