You cannot successfully go forward as a driver while having your eyes fixed on the rear-view mirror. A lot of people are so stuck in their past - including past mistakes, regrets, disappointments, heartbreak, etc, that they do not see the beautiful future coming right before them. No matter what had happened in the past, and no matter how long you dwell on it, you cannot change it. The only thing you can gain from it is lesson, which will give you the strength and the confidence to face the present and the future. The past has already gone beyond your reach, but you can still change the present in order to create your future. You can only embrace the future when you have let go of the past.
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Have you ever seen an Olympic athlete that goes for a running competition with a load on their shoulders and hope to win? Even if he used to be the fastest runner, the weight of the load on his shoulders will slow him down. This same thing happens when you hold on to the past. You cannot live in the past and the present at the same time, you have to let go of one for another. Trying to live in what has already passed is too much of a burden, and can sap one of their energy, can slow them down, and even prevent them from seeing the opportunities in the present. A lot of things that slow people's progress are not because they are not putting in efforts into the moment, but because they still hold on to the past.
It is worthy to note that giving up on the past does not mean completely forgetting about the past. Rather, it means drawing the lessons from the past, while leaving behind the pains you experienced then. Everything that happens in the past, no matter how terrible it may look, will definitely have something to teach. However, in order to learn the relevant lessons, you have to move pass it. If you had a business failure in the past for example, it can give you idea of investment in the future, and some wrong steps to avoid. This is why you should not conclude that your past is bad if you learnt something from it.
Yesterday has already gone and you cannot bring it back no matter how hard you try. Even tomorrow may not be promised. But today is definitely guaranteed, so live in it. When you give up on the past, you will gain the required freedom to take control of the present. Giving up the past also means that you have forgiven yourself for the wrong steps that you took in the past so that it will not stop your future. You also need to forgive others who have also wronged you in the past, so that it will not also stop you from gaining access to the future.
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You should also walk in the consciousness of the fact that your past, even though it may explain a few things to you, but it does not define who you are. Your true power actually lies in the present. A lot of the great people you see today from various fields of human endeavour had very rough past, and some of them were heavily disadvantaged, yet they did not allow their past to define them, neither were they stuck in the past. If you do not move from where you are coming from, you may not arrive at where you are going to. No one moves forward by always taking a reverse. If you must fulfill your dream, then you should not be distracted by the past, so you can focus on the present.
Your past may not have been bad, it may have been good. But even though you had a good past, you should not dwell too much on it, because you can have a better future. You have to improve on the successes you may have experienced in the past, so that you will become better. The journey of life is designed to become better as the days go by. But for this to be possible, you have to shift your focus from the past and concentrate on the present. It is what you do today that will become the building blocks to create your tomorrow.
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