Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 456 of the wildly successful lifestyle podcast! What’s going on out there? It’s good to be with you. Thanks for letting me have your ear for these 10 minutes…Your time is valuable and filling it up with things that bring you peace is always worth it and that’s what I try to do…I always try to be worthy of your time. So thank you for being here!
Ok, have you ever done anything you’re not proud of? Come on be honest. It’s ok I’m not gonna make us dig it all up….But, I’m guessing..there have been times in all of our lives where we have done things we weren’t proud of. Maybe it was something embarrassing or maybe it was something that was painful for someone else as well as you. It’s so tempting to look back at those things and say man I wish that hadn’t happened or man I wish I hadn’t done that. Maybe you pray no one ever finds out and maybe they never do. But here’s what I want you to know and always remember. Without that thing that you did or that thing you went through or that embarrassing phase of life…without that you wouldn’t be who you are today.
You wouldn’t be so forgiving of others. You wouldn’t be as tolerant. You were doing the best you could with what you had at the time. You can’t change the past and you wouldn’t want to. You went through that because you needed it to grow, don’t regret it, but don’t let it go to waste either which means grow from it. Who you were when you lived that experience is not who you are today. Thank yourself for getting on the other side of it and just understand it’s never as bad as you think it is. You know it could have been worse, thank yourself for pulling it together and getting on the other side of it. We like to play these games in our heads that we are especially bad and our mistakes are worse than other peoples mistakes. That’s just your head creating drama. You aren’t in competition with anyone else for who’s past is the most embarrassing. I know this because no one else was born with your set of circumstances. You did what you needed to to survive. How can I say that with confidence? Simple. Because you did it and here you are. You can frame it however you want. I suggest you frame it in a way that empowers you. How did it make you stronger? What did you learn? Focus on that and thank yourself for getting on the other side of it. Now that you are where you are, you’ll make different decisions the next time it comes up. The first time it’s a mistake, the second time it’s a choice. Accept that and act accordingly.
And also. Realize that the person that has the most to say about your past mistakes is you…in your head and you’re not nice about it. The person who dwells on it the most and thinks about it the most is you. That’s it. And the more you dwell on it the more you attract that kind of energy so stop it.
All that we really have and all that really matters is who we are right now. Who we were exists only in our minds, maybe in the minds of a few of the people that surround us. That’s it. our actions created who we are right now of course but what we do and how we think right now will create who we are tomorrow. Dwelling on the past with miserable thoughts is self defeating. It’s not doing you or anyone else any good. Accepting where you are right now and deciding who you want to be tomorrow is as easy as changing your thoughts. Our thoughts are why we do anything so if we want to improve our life we must improve our thoughts and that starts with letting go of our past. Letting go of our past story. when we do that we have a clean slate.
Now with a clean slate you can decide if the decisions you make right now will create a person you would want to be. So who do you want to be now? Forget what you’ve done in the past and say this is who I am right now and make decisions from that version of you. Remember, Who you used to be no longer exists except in your mind so if you let it go of that old version in your mind, you’ve successfully moved on from that story so you no longer have to live that way. You now can make any improvement you want from a clean slate. And guess what? When someone that knew you how you used to be wants to treat you in a way that you used to tolerate, all you have to do is let them know “you’re talking to me as if I were the person I used to be so I can’t hear you until you talk to me as the person I am today.” That’s an empowering statement. “I won’t hear you unless you speak to who I am today”. You have to have your own back. Show up in the way you want to be and you will attract that from others as well. You improve and you improve how others see you, which also improves how they treat you, which in a round about way improves you too. This doesn’t have to take a long drawn out time….
Have you ever eaten clean for a few days and worked out and you know in your heart that you’re not going to change your physical body that much in a few days but here you are looking in the mirror with pride or walking with your head a little higher, the scale may not show it but you look in the mirror and you can see it. The thing that’s changed is your mindset. You keep that going and you’re on your way to changing your life, and not only your life but the life of everyone you come in contact with. Hawkins said that “in this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone”.
Improving yourself is contagious. When I see someone working super hard to be the best version of themself it inspires me to do the same!
Improvement by definition means to become better. The word become means to grow. Growth means developing from a lower or simpler form to a higher or more complex form. None of this involves looking back. It is all forward thinking and forward movement.
The human mind left on autopilot will look to the past for information about the future. But that only keeps us in a loop of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
In order to get a different result we have to do something different. Period. We can’t look to our past to create something new.
Zig Zeigler said “you are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.”
So forget your past story. Who would you be tomorrow if anything was possible?
Well anything is. If you have something in your heart that you just feel like is meant to be for you. Go after it like your life depends on it. And you can’t quit even when it gets hard, even when it feels like it’s not working fast enough. Or even if it doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would. Don’t quit. I had different ideas about my podcast and where it would take me but where I am now I wouldn’t change for the world and I got here because I didn’t quit. And I won’t quit as long as it feels like this is what I’m supposed to be doing, Im gonna do it. I’m thankful every day for this opportunity to get what’s in my heart out to the world in a way that feels right. I hope you do the same and I hope you never quit.
If you feel you were meant for more. Follow that feeling wherever it takes you. It may not look exactly the way you thought it would but keep going anyway as long as it feels right to do so, and if you need to pivot. We have egoic ideas of where we think we should be at certain stages in life, but God or the Universe may have other ideas for you. Accept where you are but never stop working to make it better. And that includes not being disheartened or filled with regret over where you’ve been. That energy that you’re using to dwell on the past, the better use of that energy is to reconcile exactly where you are right now and get to work on making it better, especially if you know you’re meant for more.
Doing the same thing you’ve always done will get you the results you’ve always had.
My challenge to you today is to stop dragging your past around. It’s an anchor and it’s an anchor that has no purpose. I challenge you to mentally cut the rope to that anchor of your past, reconcile exactly where you are right now and make choices as if you are already the person you want to be…
