Have you ever been caught up in the past, only to find that there’s nothing you can change? But, because maybe it was a place of hurt or wrong, or you didn’t complete something, you become stuck in a loop. I’m not saying to never reflect but all of us have been stuck in the past. We’ve all lost sleep thinking about what might have been.
Think about an athlete in his prime who has a major injury right after he was being scouted. Maybe now that same man is older and has never allowed himself to be truly happy because his mind gets lost trying to track down what might have been.
Now, think about your target. Maybe you want to take a family vacation, to get out of debt, or be a better spouse. When you have a target to shoot for, if you’re stuck in the past you have to turn around to look back and that could make you miss your mark. Realize that the past is already gone and there’s nothing we can do to go back. We have to remind ourselves to stay focused on the future and on the present.
There’s an exercise I do that I learned from John Maxwell. I look at my calendar at the end of the year and I look at the January, February, March from the past year and I reflect on each month individually. I don’t get caught up on my failures. I ask myself the following questions: what did I do right, what did I do wrong, and what can I do different?
Tip to Take Away
Ask yourself those three questions, you can do it monthly or weekly, alone, or with an accountability partner. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? What can I do different? As I ask myself those questions, I am setting myself up for a better year. Reflect and appreciate your journey but don’t get lost in the past.
Photo by: Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash