Mistakes fade with time. The chances you were too scared to take get louder every year.

Something done badly gets absorbed. It has an outcome, you deal with it, and the memory loses its edge because it is finished. A chance not taken never finishes, so it stays open and available for your imagination to keep improving, which is why it gets louder rather than quieter with time.

When choosing between a risk and a comfortable no, remember which of the two you will still be thinking about. Take the smaller version if the full one is too much. An attempt that fails closes cleanly, and that is worth a great deal.