No matter how long you hold on to your past, the truth remains that you cannot alter the past, neither can you undo what you did. You may have made a couple of mistakes in the past but it should not define who you are, and it should not determine your future. The past may have had influence on your present moment, but it is worthy to note that it is your actions of the present that will influence your future. So instead of focusing your attention on changing the past, which you cannot, it is better you channel the energy at making the present moment worthwhile.
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Whatever errors that happened in the past has passed but only if you have consciously let it to go and move beyond the past to focus on the present and the future. It is true that we can refer to the past once in a while, but not to brood over it nor sulk over what has happened, but to learn valuable lessons from it. The only valuable thing that the past has to offer is to teach lessons. One of the reasons why many people repeat the same mistake that they did in the past is because they have obviously not learnt any lesson from the past.
The truth is that if the past cannot teach you any lesson at all, then nothing can teach you. The past may have gone, but the lesson learnt should still remain with you. This will make you, not only to be better, but to avoid the mistakes of the past. There is a reason that, when people are preparing for exams, they will get hold of the exam's past questions to study with them. This is so as to leverage on the experiences of the past and draw lessons from them. In the same way, the purpose everyone has a past is to teach lessons to become better in the present and have a good future.
The truth is that, just as your past has a part to play in the happenings of the present, the present also has a huge part to play in what will happen in the future. The past may have gone beyond your reach to effect any change, but you still have today to take actions that will alter your future positively. A friend of mine, during one of our talks a few months ago, made a particular statement which I saw truism in. He said:
Today is yesterday's future, so also will tomorrow be today's future.
This simply means that it is the sum total of the past that gave birth to today. But much more than that, the sum total of the actions of the present will give birth to tomorrow. So we should not take the present moment with a carefree approach, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
However, even if you made successes in the past, you should not also dwell long on it, but you should work to improve it, otherwise it may become obsolete. The world is moving and evolving at an increasingly incredible rate, so you also should flow with the trend. What you called success yesterday, if it is not worked on, and if it is not improved on, may become less of a success in the future. This is why success is not described as a one-off attainment nor a destination, but it is a continuous approach to be better and to improve on our past.
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The truth is that is you were better in the past than you are today, then you have not make a considerable success no matter how you look at it. Your today should be an improvement on your yesterday and so also should your tomorrow be an improvement on your today. However, all these may not be possible until you move beyond the past. It is almost impossible for someone to constantly look back and hope to move forward with speed. You cannot dwell in the past and hope to make a considerably fair success in the present. Always remember that to go forward, you have to let go of the past.
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