The past is the past, right? Wrong. The past can and will dictate the future if we allow ourselves to be measured based on our failures rather than our successes. Let’s face it. We all have failed or fallen short from time to time. Just because we have failed does not mean we are a failure. It just means we did the best with what we knew at the time. Parents can do this once they take a look at the lifestyle or the behavior of their grown children. If you are a parent, take heart: you did your best with the information you had in the process of raising your children. If you are a teacher and have had your share of problems and headaches and feel like the funds are low and the debts are high, don’t look back. Don’t drive while looking in the rear view mirror; you will hit a future tree. Gandhi once said, “Be the change we wish to see in the world.” What changes do you want, a kinder and gentler place for you and your family to come home to relax, have fun, and breathe might be a good place to start. Realize that you are the one that has the capacity to facilitate the change. Have you goofed up in the past? So what? The past is the past, so please don’t ever let it remind you of what you are now.
We all have fallen off of some type of wagon in our life; the diet, booze, smoking, anger management, and of course the exercise wagon. Once you fall always remember that you only have two choices; stay there or get up. As a baseball fan and one time player I came to realize that baseball is a game of failure, you can fail each and every game during your first two times up, but in the ninth inning with the game on the line you launch a game winning homerun. Success, one for three and you are a hero. Do that over the course of your career and you could get 3,000 hits, but you come up to bat 10,000 times. You know what that gets you; the hall of fame. Don’t let failure put you in your own hall of shame; rather stay with your exercise schedule. Seven days in a week, try and make it a priority to exercise three days. That gives you four days to make up for some time missed. You can do this. Let the past remind you of what the future holds when you finally let go and see yourself as a success and a future hall of famer.