I’m a great one for looking forward in life, and anyone familiar with Tony Robbins’ work will recognize the adage, “The past does not equal the future.” It’s a great line, and one I find very liberating when contemplating what I once had thought impossible.
Yet there are advantages sometimes to looking back. Not to convince yourself of the impossibility of something, but to see the distance you’ve travelled.
Do you have any old diaries, or journals? Maybe even college notes. Have you ever had the experience when you look at those that the person who wrote them maybe kind of amusing, even cute, but certainly isn’t you? You just can’t identify with that being who you are in any way. You may remember writing the notes, but there is a sense of distance between you and that “other” person.
How did you do that? Old beliefs and values – gone! Views and opinions you once held dear – up in smoke! You couldn’t care less about those things now!
Today, ask yourself, what view or idea or belief do I cling to that maybe limits me? That if I read ten or twenty years from now I’d smile in mild amusement at the person I was, and realize how limiting that way of thinking was?
Then ask yourself, “How could it be easy to let it go NOW?”
