We are not able to change what has happened in the past but we can learn from it. We are not able to create the future because there is only the eternal present 'now' moment. In order to shape the future you have to be eternally present.
To be eternally present can be likened to being a potter at a spinning wheel, the moment the potter takes his hands off the clay he steps out of the present and into the future or past. The lesson is that the past is unable to shape the future, the future is shaped by being eternally present.
For every action there is a reaction, if we spend all our time reacting to the enemy we are living in a reactive state. We turn the tables by becoming architects of our own future, we force the system to react to our vision of the world rather the other way round, this puts us in the present and them in the past.