I’ve often heard the idea that people don’t want their mistakes to follow them for the rest of their lives. Or that they don’t want anything from their past to negatively affect their future.
My mental, rarely said out-loud response is usually “that’s up to you, dude.”
Here’s the truth: no matter if it’s good or bad, our past will always follow us. We can’t leave it behind, it’s a part of us. I shapes who we are, either by force or more passively through our reactions to life’s events.
But what our past doesn’t have to do is haunt us. That, ladies and gentlemen, is up to us. We can acknowledge our past, yes… including the mistakes. And we must acknowledge that our past will always affect our future. But in what way? Will we learn from our mistakes? Will we let fear of repeating our own mistakes or even the mistakes of others drive us to make new, “more interesting” mistakes?
My mom used to always say that things can “make you bitter or they can make you better.” That’s a lot of wisdom packed in one tiny phrase, ya’ll.
So what are you gonna do? Is your past going to haunt you like a ghost? How do you make sure it doesn’t?