A friend of mine was recently recounting being named to the All-State basketball team during his high school career. He told me how many points he averaged, how many times he dunked and how many colleges he could have played for. He told me all of this while we were playing basketball together at the gym. His past was a great reminder of what could have been but it clouded his perspective on what was.
If we don’t know our purpose, we tend to live in the past. Listen to the phrases we use when we talk. People say things such as, ‘Do you remember how it used to be?’ Or ‘Those were the days.’ It’s okay to reminisce but it can’t be the only thing we talk about. There is a thin line between feelings of nostalgia and wishful longing.
In order to advance in the fulfillment of our purpose we must advance. The ways in which we advance will require us to let go of old habits, old desires and old goals. We should reevaluate and refresh our goals often. This doesn’t mean to set new goals each year just to say that we did, but to set new goals once we accomplish the goals we’ve previously set. Our greatest stories of the past should be about what we accomplished, learned and acquired that is now helping us fulfill our purpose in life.
PREDICTIONS FROM THE PAST
In the financial industry they say that past performance may not guarantee future results. Likewise, in life, our past accomplishments may not guarantee that we will be successful in our future endeavors. Every undertaking requires effort. Every goal requires planning. We tend to coast through life when we think that we have it all figured out. Those tend to be the very moments when life shows us crudely that there are some areas we have not yet mastered.
Our past experiences can show us clearly where we need to be more cognizant in the future. Our past can help us predict where shortfalls may occur or whom we can and cannot rely on to help us fulfill our vision. The goal is to lead better than we did before and to surpass the successes of our past. In other words, there is a purpose attached to our predictions. We predict so that we can produce. Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” What are you creating?
PERSPECTIVE FROM THE PAST
What did you learn from your past mistakes? What did you learn about yourself? How will this year be different from last year? Answering these questions helps us put our past in the proper perspective as opposed to just providing cool anecdotes. Perspective is about how you see what you see. If you are standing directly in front of a large redwood tree, what you see is a large immovable object that you can’t go through. However, if you back up a few feet, you see a tree that you can easily walk around.
What do you need to take a second look at from last year? What did you miss while you were going through a difficult situation that you can now view with calmer eyes? The stress of a situation can blind us to its lessons. But on the other side of the drama we can find lessons initially missed that can aid us in our future efforts. The past can’t be accurately assessed in the present.
PURPOSE OF THE PAST
Purpose can be defined as the original intent for why something exists. When you know why you’re here and what you’re supposed to do you will also know which lessons to take from the past and which situations to write off. When you are building something from scratch you are aware at the beginning what the finished product should be and what it should be able to do. In life, each step is necessary in order to become a finished product but we need not overly celebrate each step because until the product is finished we haven’t really accomplished anything yet.
You have completed many steps in your past – all of which, both good and bad, can point you in the correct direction. What’s your end game? Who are you striving to become? What are you striving to create? What vision are you seeking to fulfill? The purpose of the past is to prepare us for the future. Take notes, chart your growth, and remain active. Some people like to finish puzzles. It’s an arduous undertaking. In life, we build a little bit more of the puzzle each year but the goal is for every piece to fit in place so that we maximize the pains of the past in order to fulfill our purpose in the future.
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