How Reflecting On The Past Helps Me To Move Forward In Life.

“I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.”
-Maya Angelou

I find myself reflecting on the past quite often. I think about how my life has changed over the last few years. There have been times where I wished I had a time machine to change a few things (who hasn’t?) Many people would rather block out the past due to bad experiences, but I believe it’s better to address what we have been through so we can see how far we’ve come. While reflecting can prove beneficial, it’s important not to create a habit of dwelling on the past. Instead, we should use it as a way to push ourselves towards creating a better future. These are a few ways that reflecting helps me progress in life.

It gives me a sense of accountability.

Would I have missed that meeting if I had written down the time?

Would I have been able to secure that domain name if I hadn’t procrastinated?

What would my life be like if I had never talked to that person?

Thinking on past incidents, I realize that everything I’ve done in my past, whether intentional or unintentional, has played a factor in how my life is today. It’s easy to embrace the good things from the past, but the challenge for many comes when we have to own up to things that haven’t gone the way we planned. It’s easy to blame others for the things that went wrong, but how many times have we admitted to the part we played? We often beat ourselves up over past incidents and become the worst critic of ourselves. Asking questions like “Did I do my best?” and “Could I have done that better?” The magic of having accountability is taking those questions and using them to become stronger, better, wiser people and become more thoughtful in our words and actions.

When we hold ourselves accountable, we have the power to change our future. We own up to our past and allows us to make peace with things that used to be. Instead of “Did I do my best?” We can say “I will do better next time.” Instead of “Could I have done better?” We will say “I will do my best to make the best decision.”…