by grasshopper on August 1, 2011
Everything you’ve done, everything you’ve experienced, is complete and written into the concrete of the past. It’s fine to remember. In fact it’s good to remember so you don’t repeat any past mistakes. However, the most important thing to do about the past (good, bad, ugly, sad) is to LET IT GO! Recriminations, “I woulda, shoulda, coulda” type talk serves no useful purpose and is counter-productive to bettering yourself.
A little known secret about the past is it’s DONE. No matter what happened, how good it was or how bad it was, it’s over and you get to start again. Every day, every hour, every second you have an opportunity to forge a new direction, take a different path, do something different.
So what’s up?
I don’t care where you are in your life, you control what you do next. You choose to keep walking forward while looking back, reveling in the glory of your youth, or wallowing in recriminations of decisions made in the past. Shuck it off boyo. I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but time is speeding up as you near the end game. Now’s the time to make every second count.
Mountains, valleys, hills and dales await you. Run to them and don’t look back.
by grasshopper on January 22, 2011
A single man who lives alone asks his neighbor to hold $5,000 in safe-keeping for him as he is going on a trip. A trip that goes horribly awry. The man unfortunately moves on to his eternal reward (in whatever shape that may be) and the neighbor contacts the grieving family and returns the $5,000 dollars. Woot woot! What a great guy! Pats on the back all around… celebration for the fact “there are still good people in the world” yada, yada, yada.
True – if the neighbor immediately called the dead dude’s family without a second thought and offered up the money.
False – if the neighbor thought “I should keep this. No one knows… wait, crap, he may have told someone he was giving me the money to keep safe. I better give it back.”
Same results, very different paths to get there. One a path of honor, the other a path of fear (of getting caught), but no one could tell by their outward actions. Well, that’s not quite right. In each case, someone can tell. The man in question. He knows whether he acted honorably or not. He can look in the mirror and he will know.
The same for you. Don’t be that second guy. No one else will know, but you will… and that guy in the mirror will be ducking you every time. Make sure your actions allow you to look him in the eye… always.
