How to Remake Your Past & Unlock the Future

Mistakes, missed opportunities, and disappointments: the past can be a heavy burden to bear. Common wisdom advises moving on. The past is over and done with. It can’t be changed. Opportunity lies in the future. While the latter is true, you can remake your past.

During the early 1990s, I came close to losing my business. Having gambled a lot of money on expansion, I lost my bet. Saddled with debt and shrinking income, my prospects for success dimmed. Yet four years later I was making more money than ever before. Given my struggle, there’s no denying 1991-1993 were terrible years, right?

Your Past Is Malleable

Indeed at the time I felt embattled. My self-respect plunged. I hated going to the office but aside from running in the morning and picking up a game of tennis now and then, had nowhere else to go.

Yet by the late 1990s, I looked back on those years quite differently. I learned a lot of practical skills and lessons. I realized the benefit of persistence and focus. All of the audio programs I’d listened to: Zig Ziglar, Roger Dawson, and Earl Nightingale, made sense.

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By reframing the struggle and hardship, I literally remade the past. No longer was it about pain and suffering. Rather it was a time of change and growth.

How to Remake Your Past

Though counterintuitive, you can only change your past. How you view events in your life creates the reality of your life experiences.

Did you make a terrible mistake? Distill the lessons from it and make it meaningful, even beneficial.

What opportunities have you missed? Use them to create objectives for the future. Change them from regrets to motivation that will propel you to a goal.

Were you disappointed by a family member or lost friendship? Heal yourself by reconciling with the person or avoiding a similar issue with someone else. The stronger relationships that result will transform sorrow into closeness and joy.

Write down the events in your past that fester in your mind. Find what is positive in them or something you can do to change their meaning. Talk to your spouse or a trusted friend to get ideas, someone who sees life positively. Be sure to record this new perspective.

The Future is Static

By its nature, the future is one-dimensional. We tend to look at the future as having limitless opportunity. While this is true, since it hasn’t happened yet we have no basis for interpreting it. The future is fixed in the realm of potential. Only when they are past can you attach true meaning to events.

Given how pliable the past is, vow you won’t just move on, with all the potential this holds for repeating life’s mistakes. The best way to create greater potential for the future is to remake your past. Start today.

How will you remake your past?
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