“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that is why they call it present”- Unknown origins.
You cannot do anything to change your past neither can you delete it. But you can do something with the present to help shape your future.
Look, we all have closets and in those closets are skeletons. I mean, “Some of those skeletons would even refuse to be shown to people.”
Well, if you do not have skeletons, with time you will surely have them. Whether you want to share them with the world or not is entirely up to you. Simply put, there is no one with a perfect past.
Even the most successful and humblest of people have skeletons in their closets.
I have done some things in the past that am not proud of. Really, some of the stuff I did, if I could go back in time, equipped with the knowledge I have acquired, I would change them.
Unfortunately, I cannot, and neither can you. I am here and doing what am doing mostly because of my past.
Your past experience helped to shape your present. You, therefore, need to learn to live and appreciate your past, good or bad.
What you should be preoccupied with is trying your level best to lay a better foundation for the future.
You cannot make progress by dwelling on your past. The past is history. It’s gone, let go of it. You cannot continue crying over spilt milk.
You can only embrace and accept the past. Learn from it and move on. There are lessons you can take from your past, that can be taken into the future.
To achieve growth, life demands that you learn from the mistakes you made and from the people around us.
Human beings tend to be wiser as they grow older. They say experience is the greatest teacher.
If you cannot learn from your past experiences, well then you must be untrainable. But I believe that all human beings are trainable.
The Importance of Learning from Your Past
You cannot expect different results if you keep doing the same things over and over. You cannot expect to succeed if there is nothing you are doing about it.
If you believe that practice makes perfect; you need to change your belief system. I grew up believing that practice makes perfect until I learned that practice only makes room for improvement which leads to improved results.
Learning from the past is what gives us wisdom. It is what makes us grow as human beings.
Sometimes am left wondering what is wrong with our current generation. We want to start climbing the tree of success from the top.
We want to experience success without going through the mill. No wonder we have people who can not achieve real success.
When things go wrong, do not go with them. Make a decision to go the opposite direction.
You will agree with me that wisdom comes from experience and experience comes with age.
Every little positive change that you make in life is important. It takes you closer to your goals.
You must realise that change is not sudden and that it is not easy. Just because you made a mistake at your last job and got fired does not mean you must give up.
Get up and accept your mistakes and take responsibility for them. Learn from them and stop blaming your boss for having you fired, he was merely doing his job.
I know it’s not easy when you lose a job, especially in the current economic situation. But I believe that God allows such things to happen so as to position you for better things to come.
Learning from our past experiences cannot be over-emphasised. It is of paramount importance that we all learn from our past experiences.
It all begins by first knowing ourselves better. Over the last few years, I have become an ardent student of myself.
Yes, you heard me right a student of myself. You will be amazed to learn that most of us do not know ourselves very well.
The fact that I now understand myself better than before is very helpful in my everyday life. I know when to do things more efficiently and what conditions I will thrive in at any particular time.
I have learned over time what sort of music will motivate me to write articles and will influence my working mood. All this has come by seriously paying attention to myself.
Live Life in the Present
Well, it is good to reminiscence about the past. But, this should not be your preoccupation because no matter how good your past was, it is history. It belongs to the annals of history.
Yes, it was good while it lasted, but life has moved on. Life dictates that we also move forward with it.
If you are not moving forward then you are moving backwards. With time you will realise that all your juniors will have progressed.
Life is never static. Charles Haanel in his book the Master Key says “Opportunity follows perception, action follows inspiration, growth follows knowledge, eminence flows progress.”
My understanding is that if your life is not moving forward or you are not taking action, the opportunity will surely pass you by.
There comes a time in one’s life when things seem to be impossible. That is when we are required to show our strength and tenacity.
I have a very good friend of mine, I won’t mention his name for now. Actually his my childhood friend.
This is a very intelligent and brilliant guy but has failed to progress because he still lives in the past.
He has literally failed to move on in life. Every time we meet our discussions are mostly centred on the past and he never seems to focus on the future.
This is a guy that has gone from being one of the most promising talents in his field to be one of the most unreliable employee.
All this simply, because of not accepting his previous mistakes and not learning from them, and as a result opportunities have passed him by because he still lives in his past glory.
What I am trying to say is that we must learn to live in the present. Enjoy today. Remember today is called present. It is your present from God Almighty.
Make sure you do the right things. Do not take things for granted. Take every opportunity that comes your way with both hands and live your life.
Conclusion
I would like to leave you with one of my favourite prayers.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” – Serenity Prayer.
For me, this prayer summarises what we need to do in life. It recognises the fact that we cannot change the past and that a bright future belongs to the courageous. Have a wonderful and successful life.