Many of us are fascinated by the idea of manipulating time and space in order to create opportunities for a ‘do over’. We love to explore how life might have turned out if we’d chosen a different path. It’s why movies like Back To The Future and The Time Traveller’s Wife are so popular, along with mind-bending ideas like the ‘butterfly effect’.

We love the concept of having a ‘reset’ button — of being able to start fresh, without botching things up, or being able to handle things better a second time around, with the benefit of wisdom and hindsight.

Our minds play tricks on us, as we imagine how things might have turned out had we been a more capable, experienced version of ourselves. And when we imagine the future, it’s always with the assumption that our ‘best self’ will show up there. In our daydreams, we’re usually at our healthiest and most productive, organised and confident when handling our future challenges.

We come to our senses and understand that life isn’t like this. We...