MasterChef judge Melissa Leong: ‘I regret choosing the safe thing’

MasterChef judge Melissa Leong discusses the power of trusting your gut when facing difficult decisions.

The Australian school system isn’t crash-hot on teaching Indigenous Australian history, but for some reason almost every kid my age (39, for the record) absolutely remembers studying the entry-level works of classic American poet Robert Frost.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” – the iconic opening line from The Road Not Taken – is a familiar phrase. Few could better distil the sentiment of making choices and inevitably wondering whether the safe or the more adventurous option will prove to be the right one.

From someone whose roads have diverged countless times in dubious directions, I often wonder not only how I arrived at where I am, but also what if I’d made different, possibly more sensible, choices.

“I, for one, am learning to trust my gut instinct more.” (Picture: Steven Chee)

My folks begged me to study at least one unit of accounting when I was at uni, in their eyes a fail-safe in case their unpredictable daughter needed something predictable to fall back on. But the numbers game just wasn’t for me.

What might my life have looked like if I’d chosen safer, saner options at more crossroads? Might I be living in the ’burbs with a bunch of awesome kids while juggling court cases and maths homework? Would I be waiting out this pandemic in London, a place I’d always planned to live for more than just six months in my carefree 20s?

How do we know if we made the “right” choices – and how do we make better ones in the future? I, for one, am learning to trust my gut instinct more.

As a chronic overthinker, I’ve been known to cast that intuition aside in deference for what seems better on paper, or at least a more logical option. Nine times out of 10 in those cases, though, I’ve regretted choosing the safer thing over what excites me or simply feels right.

I’m not saying you should choose your gut over properly thinking things through, but there really is something to be said for the way a choice makes us feel once we’ve made it. Can we rest easy at night, or are we left staring at the ceiling?

Melissa Leong features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

Whether it’s relationships or careers, at the end of the day we’re the ones who live with the decisions we make.And if our very selves are waving red flags or seeing neon arrows that flash “THIS WAY, NO REALLY”, maybe we ought to give that instinct more credence from time to time.

If I’ve learnt anything from the past year or so, it’s that the more adventurous options aren’t always going to be there. Surely when this is all over, we’ll be less likely to put those things that excite us on hold? So I suppose all this time to reflect has been beneficial in some way for us all. And for me, choosing the road less travelled really has made all the difference in my life… and I don’t regret a thing.

Melissa Leong co-hosts Celebrity MasterChef Australia, which will air later this year on Network Ten.

Originally published as MasterChef judge Melissa Leong: ‘I regret choosing the safe thing’