Living In The Past

Life isn’t about how you start it is how you finish. Our surroundings shape and influence our path. The choices that seemed like a mistake can easily be chalked up as life experience, if only we would allow ourselves the perception to see that. As a child someone had to tell you no, even then you may have done it anyway, only to feel the wrath of the consequences. That’s how you learned. The very state of living and pursuing happiness at its best is a controlled experiment. We are all in a lab creating our own perfect dosage of what gratification is. As we change so does the recipe.

Often many of us live in the past. The baggage of the past controls our thoughts, actions, inaction, and impacts our relationships. You don’t get very far if you are on a journey and you keep stopping to look back. We can’t grow, nor do we allow others to grow if we’re constantly piling on their previous indiscretions and constantly reminding them of who they use to be. Many of us are so progressive we aren’t even the same person we were a year ago, let alone 10 years ago.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” – 1 Corinthians 13:11

Life is all about growing. You want to get better and better every day. We must let go and forgive. When you forgive someone including yourself, you only have to do it one time. Even as a Christian we believe that if we repent our slate is wiped clean. God doesn’t remind us what we did last week, month or year. Despite this we hold guilt over ourselves and others. This has to stop. There should be no regret or shame. In my Erykah Badu voice, “You are going to hurt your back, dragging all them bags.”

[News Flash] No matter how hard you try you can’t change what’s already been done.

You wouldn’t be where you are today had it not been for the choices you made. Even if you aren’t where you want to be, there were a series of actions and reactions that led you here. Even if you are not proud of the decisions you made, if you’re still here to talk about it, you were successful. Successful in making it out alive. Your mess can now become your message. Life is all about living and learning. Those skeletons in the closet only represent where you have been. They do not determine where you are going.

Living in the past will undermine your future. Never apologies for who you were, because it shaped you. Smart people learn from their mistake and the wise learn from other people’s mistakes. There will always be better choices that you could have made. Trust that you made the choice that made sense to you at that moment, as did anyone else. There is no shame in making mistakes, only shameful thing would be not learning from them. Be imperfect, so you can perfect it.