Hold on for a brighter future…
A lot of people might be dreading upcoming get-togethers with relatives during the holiday season because one of the things that will most definitely be brought up is how we all did this year. If you are going to be facing nosy relatives knowing that you failed in a relationship or business (or lost a job), you are already going into the holiday season with some negativity.
Some of your failures, losses or bad experiences might have been beyond your control but the negativity that comes with them can linger around more than you like. When one happens to get some bad luck on a repeated basis, this can have a really devastating effect on the soul.
For example, let’s say that you keep having bad relationships from the dating scene. They all start out with much excitement but after a few months, all of your relationships turn sour. You then start to wonder if you will always end up with relationship disasters as if they were your destiny.
It’s so easy to fall into this trap of being a perpetual victim or failure as your self-esteem goes down the drain. But there IS hope even if you have had a rocky past.
Past Does Not Equal Future
One of the biggest advocates of the notion that your past does not equal your future is motivational speaker and author Anthony Robbins as he stated;
“Your past does not equal your future. What matters is not yesterday but what you do right now.”
If you have ever had any failures or losses (and who hasn’t?), this is one quote that you should always keep in mind. Whether you’ve had failures in relationships, business, career or have been accident prone, it doesn’t mean that you are doomed for all time. Learn what you can from any bad experiences and move on. Apply your lessons to what you can do right now to move your future towards your desired future.
Let’s go back to the bad relationships example. Just because you’ve had a few of them doesn’t necessarily mean that you will continue to bomb in this area as well. Although for many people, this unfortunately will be the case only because they never take the effort to try and learn from failures in past relationships.
Were there any repeated patterns on choosing the incompatible partners? How about patterns in how we deal with our partners? Can we take these lessons and apply them to future relationships so we are more careful in choosing more appropriate people to have relationships with?
It’s What We Do Now That Counts
If we make real efforts to actively make positive changes right now — despite failures in the past, our chances of success in the future are much higher. Don’t just make wishes for better outcomes. Again, it’s what we do right NOW that makes the big difference in the future rather than what happened in the past.
In my case, I’ve had everything from family tragedies to major sports injuries that required surgeries. I cannot let these past events jinx my future. I could have easily allowed these bad experiences to turn me into a chronic pessimist. But as long as I keep steady in doing the right things now, I will succeed in the future no matter what the past was like.
As a result of my own past misfortunes, I’ve made such changes from taking steps on injury prevention to actively re-balancing my day-to-day lifestyle. These changes have paid off in much better results compared to my past.
What you do now can drastically change your future for the better. Think about anything in your past that you would have liked to change if you could. Then make positive changes so that your future will look brighter than ever before.
Feel free to share what changes you will make to ensure that your past does not equal your future.
(Photo credit: The Sun in Hands via Shutterstock)
