You didn’t waste those years. You were collecting parts.

Time that did not produce a visible result still produced you. The dead end job, the abandoned major, the friendship that ended: each left you with information, skills and instincts you now use without noticing. Nothing you lived through gets deleted, only stored. The years only look wasted while you are measuring them by what you were supposed to have finished.

Write a short list of what a period you regret actually gave you. Be literal: a skill, a person, a thing you now refuse to do twice. Use one of those items on purpose this week.