Dwelling in the past will do nothing but keep you captured in yesterday. There is nothing you can do about yesterday’s events but learn from them and move on. What happened then was meant for that season in your life and unless you want to remain stuck, it is time to embrace a new season.
Carrying the weight and baggage of yesteryear will only wear you down – physically, mentally, and emotionally. LET IT GO! If there was something you could have done to change it, don’t you think you would have did it by now? How can you possibly move forward constantly looking behind you? One of my mentors explained it this way. A soldier’s armor is built with a protective breastplate to withstand oncoming attacks, but the back of the armor is not as sturdy. Why? Because a soldier forges ahead, moving forward as he takes on his adversaries. He does not fight his battles back peddling or moving in reverse, thus his front needs more protection than his rear. The minute he stops progressing forward or gets caught up looking behind him, he has lost the battle.
Have you ever really looked at the windshield of your vehicle. It is spacious and gives a broad view of all that is ahead. Whereas the rearview mirror only provides a limited view and when looking in it, the images are in a distance and appear much smaller. There is no difference in life. What is ahead is vast, greater, and more phenomenal than anything in your past. What is in the rearview mirror was meant to be left behind.
If it is in the past, leave it there. Stop allowing yesterday’s events dictate today’s outcome. It is a cliché as can be, but today is called the present because it truly is a present! All any of us truly have is this very day, it is a gift, and what we do with it is all that counts. If you squander today there is no do over, you can’t turn back time and try to recreate it. Even if possible, the variables will undoubtedly change making it impossible to replicate. In other words, YOU CAN NOT CHANGE THE PAST.
Stop living in regret and past failures. What happened then does not dictate who you are now or where you are headed. You future is bright, but it all depends on what you do now. Embrace the present and capitalize on today! Continue to build your destiny and not tear it apart by trying to relive the past. Moving forward does not mean forgetting the past, but learning from as to not repeat it. It is hard getting to the next chapter of life when you are constantly re-reading the previous chapters.
“The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.” ~ Thomas S. Monson
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” ~ Lyndon B. Johnson
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ~ Robert Frost
Leaving your past behind, that is something really real to me, putting the past behind. I have to do that each and everyday, because if I hold on to the past I can not move forward. I am focusing on embracing the new. I am embarking on embracing a new season in my life. I feel much better moving into the new and letting the old go. It is truly a blessing to let go and let God. Embrace the New you; it feels much better.