Over the past two days, we’ve been exploring how to transform the catabolic, destructive experience of what if thinking into a more anabolic approach of completing the past. Let’s revisit my third personal point on what ifs with this in mind:
3. You can’t change the past, you can only learn from it and move on. I spent a lot of time living in the past during the early years of my grief recovery. While some of it was just part of the natural grieving process, there were times when I was simply stuck. The reality for me was there was nothing for me to learn from spending my time there. Mostly it was me sitting with my regrets.
Once I was able to create my recovery process I could let go of those regrets that had me chained to a series of events I could never do-over. If you are living surrounded by regret or stuck replaying scenes from the past asking what if something had gone differently, observe how it is impacting your energy and your ability to engage in life. You are not here to live in a past where nothing can change, but to boldly step into a future that inspires you and allows you to live on purpose and with passion.
Each day and each hour of your life is a gift of great value…yours to spend as you choose? Are you buying the currency of wishful thinking or courageously taking the what’s next step no matter how things have gone in the past?
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States. It is a wonderful time to give thanks to our past experiences for the lessons learned and the growth they’ve inspired. It is also an appropriate time to move into a place of gratitude and clean up any messes with yourself or others so you can be complete with the past. Finally, it is a time to embrace the reality that we all have a limited time on this earth that we can either spend wishing things were different or by being the difference in the world.
If you’re stuck and need help, email to set up a complimentary session to explore how to move from past to present and from what if to inspired thinking.
