Episode 204 - Regret Destroys What Effort Builds?

Blink and the week is gone—and with it, the illusion that outcomes tell the whole story. We take a hard look at what success actually means and trade the hustle-first mindset for a trust-first practice: show up, do the right work at home, at the office, and in your community, then let the results live where they belong. The theme is simple and demanding: align your will with God’s will, and watch how clarity replaces anxiety and how opportunities arrive without becoming your master.

We unpack a classic teaching—make your will His, and He will make His will yours—and translate it into daily choices. That doesn’t mean passivity. It means turning down the noise of media and metrics long enough to hear what truly matters, then acting with courage. We share real-world examples from producing this show: we prepare, record, edit, publish, and pray for impact, then release control. Growth has come, but not because we forced it; it came as a gift entrusted to a team focused on faith over vanity metrics.

There’s also a sober warning: regret can demolish what took years to build. We explore how second-guessing a good deed—charity, prayer, learning—can strip its merit, and how to guard your work with gratitude. When you stumble, teshuva offers a practical reset: acknowledge, feel, ask, and choose better next time. That rhythm helps you recover faster, lead with integrity, and keep momentum when life ebbs and flows. We wrap with a simple weekly checklist to measure success by growth: one act of trust, honest effort, surrendered outcomes, protected deeds.

We’re also launching a giveaway: Rabbi Dovid Sapirman is gifting ten copies of his Emuna book. Share, like, and comment on any episode by Sunday for a chance to win. And don’t miss tomorrow’s conversation with Rabbi Glenn Black of NCSY Canada, a leader shaping the next generation. If something here moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review—what’s one step of trust you’ll take this week?

Chapters

• 0:00 Redefining A Successful Week
• 1:06 Outcomes Versus Effort And Trust
• 3:18 Aligning Your Will With God’s
• 5:04 Letting Go Of Control In Growth
• 7:20 Setbacks, Regret, And How To Rebuild
• 9:40 Teshuva As A Reset
• 10:01 Book Giveaway Announcement
• 10:50 Teaser For Rabbi Glenn Black
• 11:14 Closing And Listener Actions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:25

Hello and welcome everybody to the Trust Factor, the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. You blinked, you blinked, and it's Thursday, which means you've cranked out another week. Tomorrow is Friday, just that fast. It's shocking how quickly the days and the weeks go by. The question is, how did you do? Are you happy with the week that you had? Were you successful? That doesn't mean that you achieve the outcomes because we've said a million times and I'll repeat it for you again. Outcomes are out of our hands. When I ask you, did you have a successful week? What it means to ask is, did you take on new challenges for growth? Did you start something new? That doesn't mean that you put a new spigot on the barrel to try and get more income from another side hustle. That's not what we're talking about. If you're still doing that at this point in the podcast, where we're almost done this book, then you haven't grasped the main point of what we're discussing over here. What I'm asking is, did you recognize that there is a God in this world? Did you come one step closer to building that relationship that you have with Him? Did you put yourself out a little bit out of your comfort zone in an area that you would normally not do that because you want to establish or build upon the existing relationship that you have with your creator? That's what I mean. And that's the only definition of success. Because when you invest in that relationship, when that is your focus, then you know what happens? All the other things that you chase, the material, the wealth, the fame, the fortune, all the things, if they're good for you, if they're beneficial for you, Hashem knows what's in your heart, and he knows what you want, and he knows what's good and what's not good. But if it's good for you and you pray for it, you ask for it, and Hashem knows that you will do well with whatever it is that you're asking, then he will provide it. It will come easier because he recognizes that you're on the right track. You know where the source of blessing comes from. You know that he's the one in charge. He calls the shots, not us. What do we do? We step up and we give an effort. That's it. You step up at home, you step up at work, you step up in your community. That's it, my friends. If you're doing those three things and you're always trying to grow in those relationships, then he will take care of everything else. I don't know if I've ever said this before, but it's important to mention there's a verse that says, Ase retzoncha kirtsone, which means God says to you, make your will my will. Do the things that I tell you to do. Switch off your brain when it comes to making big decisions about direction and approach to life, and think about what I've told you and implement what I've told you. Not what government tells you, not what media tells you, not what celebrities tell you. They don't care about you. Do what Hashem tells you because he's the only one who loves you. He's the only one who wants to see you succeed in a way that is immeasurable. So do his work, he says. And if you make my will your will, then I will make your will my will. Could you imagine? What an offer. You have the master of the universe, he who created everything that ever was, is, or will be. He who manages all of creation, the galaxies and the planets and the cells within your body. You can't even begin to understand the precision with which he's been operating this universe since its inception, since he created it. There is simply nothing on planet Earth to compare his perfection to. Bottom line, he says, if you do what I want you to do, then I will do what you want me to do. How's that for a deal? How's that? You want money? Who's got more money than anybody else? He does. And the ability to give it. You want fame? Who's got the ability to make you famous? He does. I'll tell you something. I see it in this podcast. I know I'm not in charge of outcomes. I know he is, so it doesn't bother me whether people sign up or whether they leave, it makes no difference to me. Thank God people have been coming on board and it's been growing. And I've got, we've now got a little campaign going of a board of sorts, people who are coming together to take this whole thing to the next level because thank God we've been impacting people in an amazing way. But do you think that I expected that? Absolutely not. I know that I'm showing up every morning. I turn on the computer, I turn on the mic, I do some learning for a few minutes, and then I say a little prayer to Hashem, help me out with today that it should be successful. And the rest is out of my hands. Obviously, I produce it, I edit it, I put it online, I share it on social media, but that's it. That's all. Beyond that point, he determines how far and wide it spreads, and he determines who listens and who doesn't listen, and he determines who has the merit to sign up and subscribe, and he also determines who loses the merit and therefore leaves. I have no impact on that. That's what I mean when it comes to having a successful week. Have you learned that? And are you incorporating these lessons into your day-to-day? I hope you are. Let's get into the most befitting way for Rabbeinu Bachia to finish off this book. What is it? He says, Up until now, he says, We're into chapter seven, by the way. Up until now, he says, since we've completed the previous chapters of this gate, the gate of trust, and we've been talking about everything that has to do with understanding how to acquire and how to maintain trust in our Creator, this relationship. He says it's important now that we start to figure out what detracts from our ability, what holds us back from our ability to invest in this relationship. If you didn't have success this week in the areas I just outlined, why? What's been holding you back? That's what we're about to address. And more than that, he says, not just what's been holding you back from growing and investing in the relationship, but also what has been setting you back? In other words, you've achieved greatness, you've invested in this relationship, you've learned his Torah, you've committed to his lifestyle, but all of us have ups and downs. Life ebbs and flows. Nothing is a straight shot. We all have setbacks. So what he's also going to address is what are those setbacks that put a kink in your learning? What are the setbacks that take your learning and make you regret them? God forbid. That's there's probably nothing worse in the world than you've worked and worked and worked to build, and something small and insignificant, or even big and significant, comes along and destroys all of your hard work. It doesn't take much, my friends. You know this. It's common sense, right? Common sense with a little bit of knowledge. God shows you with your own two eyes. You see a building. It doesn't matter where you live in a Western democracy these days, with the current approach to bringing people in en masse from third world countries to first world countries, all you have to do is look around and you will see cranes everywhere. Buildings are shooting up and they're skyscrapers and they can't build fast enough, right? But even though they can't build fast enough to put up a 40, 50, 60 story skyscraper condominium takes years. Years, two, three, four, five years. How long does it take when they've decided that they want to demolish that building? When they bring in the wrecking ball and the dynamite, how long does it take to tear down that skyscraper? Seconds, minutes, hours, not years, my friends. Not years. To build can take lifetimes. To destroy can take seconds, can take minutes. And all you need to do sometimes to destroy your learning is regret. Just to regret, to say, why did I do that? Why did I give away that charity? I could have used it here, I could have used it there. Why did I go to prayers in the morning? I shouldn't have gone to prayers because if I wouldn't have, I would have made that meeting and then I would have closed the deal and everything would have worked out perfect. But you know what? I went and I tried and I lost because I came late to the meeting and I lost out. If you regret doing the right thing, you've lost all the merits that come from having done the right thing. What a shame. What a shame. We worked so hard to build it. Now we're all susceptible to this. I'm not laying blame and I'm not suggesting that this is a unique thing to specific individuals. Everybody succumbs to this. But we have this wonderful, beautiful gift that God gave us called chuva, called repentance, called inner reflection, looking at what we've done, recognizing that we've done wrong, asking for forgiveness, and you get a clean slate. That's how it works. He wants you to win. He doesn't want to hold you back, he doesn't want to see you down and out, he wants to see you up and soaring, and he gives you this beauty, this gift of chuva to be able to fix anything that you've done in this world that's held you back or had a negative impact on your relationship with him. We need to be eternally grateful for that. I want to make an announcement. If you've made it this far, you're gonna be one of the first people to know about this. Rabbi David Saperman has written multiple books and he's got more books, God willing, coming out. He's generously offered to give away ten copies of his Amuna book, a spectacular read that I have referenced many times in this podcast. And so here's how it goes. Every week on Sunday, whoever shares, likes, and comments, all three, on any one of the episodes, it would be even better if you did it on his interview, but any one of the episodes, if you share, like, and comment on it, then I'm going to pull a draw every Sunday, and I'm going to choose an individual at random to get a free copy of the book Amuna, including shipping right to your door. And finally, tomorrow, Friday, that's the big day, Rabbi Glenn Black, my friend and the CEO of NCSY Canada, a massively, massively successful organization that is responsible almost single-handedly for the building up of our future Jewish leaders and the future Jewish generations. We'll hear from him tomorrow. Thank you all for spending this time with us on the Trust Factor Podcast. If you've heard something today that moved you, then save this episode and share it with someone who might need to hear it. And be sure to subscribe on any of the platforms so that you don't miss upcoming conversations that challenge, empower, and uplift. And if you're on social media, connect with us. Leave your thoughts, drop a quote that resonated with you. Hashtag the TrustFactor Podcast. Until next time, keep growing in your trust and keep living with purpose. I'm Jesse Revivo, and this has been the Trust Factor Podcast. Thanks for listening.