Living in the Past
“The past can be a wonderful place to visit, but you would not want to live there…” — Nido R. Qubein
All of us have a past, which for some was bad and for some was good. For a majority of us, the past is not a place we want to visit while for the rest, it is a good place to visit. The issue is, whether it is a bad or good place to visit, it is not where you want to set up your abode and yet, that is exactly what we wind up doing in many cases. For, whether it be a bad or good place to visit, when we enjoy living in the past we wind up missing out on the future, our future.
There are many reasons we wind up living in the past. One is we are tied to it through broken relationships and the unwillingness to forgive. A lack of forgiveness will keep us from becoming all we have the capacity to become. This happens when through interaction with another, hate, fear, bitterness, envy, jealousy, strife and the like enters into our heart causing a broken relationship with that person. This broken relationship keeps us tied to yesterday. As a matter of fact, we all identify with the object of our bitterness and as a result of this identification, we wind up becoming like the one we hate.
This happened to me due to a broken relationship with my father. I hated him and as my wife and others can tell you, I wound up being just like him, volatile temper and all. It wasn’t until I forgave him that I was able to become my own person and move into my own future free from the past and that which held me back from being the best I could be. It didn’t matter if he agreed or if he felt the same, what was important is what I believed and did to free myself.
We can also be tied to the past when we look back thinking of the way it used to be and how we wish it was again BECAUSE the past was better than what we are living today. The choice to do this reveals we are not living nor are we contributing to what will make our present better than it was in the past. We must be planting seeds for a crop that will rise up in all of our tomorrows and we cannot do this when we are living in the past. In the past the seeds have been planted and harvested. When you live in that past, you are simply watching a movie of what you once did and enjoyed instead of writing a new script for the living you could, should, and would be doing for the future.
Bottom line is make up your mind to reflect on the past and use it to inspire, but don’t use it for a place to live.
Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…
Respectfully,
Rick Cox