Be aware of the past but unhindered into the Future

According to the Oxford dictionary, hindsight is defined as the understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed. This therefore means that if our foresight was as effective as our hindsight, we will make some decisions differently. This also means that we might react in a different way to situations in which we felt we wanted something so bad but didn’t get it. At that point in time, it seemed like the “best thing ever” and you would have done absolutely anything to get it however, having armed yourself with more information and a clearer picture of the situation, you can evidently see that you were better off without it and therefore, more forgiving of the past and yourself.

Now, what happens when retrospection does not present you with the sort of information you feel you can easily move on from? What happens when it doesn’t leave you with much worth forgiving or forgetting? Will you keep pondering over what could have been or make a conscious decision to let go?

While hindsight is a good perspective to have, you cannot keep driving a car while looking through your rear view mirror because there is a huge chance you will bump into something.

There is a huge difference between learning lessons from the past and being stuck in the past; playing the events over and over again in your head and wishing that it either happened in a different way, or never even happened at all.

Being stuck in the events of the past is synonymous to being stuck in the mud and yet, expecting to make progress.

 

While throwing a pity party with the “odds” in your head about how unfair the past was to you might be comforting for a little while, don’t park your life there permanently! Enjoy your 5 minutes pity party and drive out of the parking spot!

Life should be lived in the present while learning from the past and working towards a bright future. The only one that can really stop that future from becoming a reality is you. 

It is impossible to ignore the past but do not be a prisoner of your past. Live with the awareness that the past exists but with the freedom that your future is in no way limited by your past. 

The future consists of innumerable opportunities waiting to be explored so walk into the future and own it!

Let the challenges of the past build in you strength of character, let the worries of the present drive you deeper into finding a solution, let the scars of your life help tell a story only you can because you have been there, and let the sum of your experiences be the driving force beneath your wings that propels you into a bright future.

Philippians 3:13 - Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

By: Toluwalola Kasali

Photo credit: KBEAR 101