Moving Beyond Your Past

Do you allow your past to dictate who you are today?

Will you let your past define who you will be tomorrow?

If you had the choice, would you continue your life as the person you think you are today (based on past habits, beliefs, thoughts, experiences) or be that person you truly wanted to be?

You do have the choice to decide.

Take some time to think about your past and the role it plays in defining whom you are today. We all have had challenges, struggles, negative experiences, and maybe even made a few mistakes along the way that have led us to right now.

Learning to to able to let go from your past moments is important. If not, your past will keep its arms wrapped tightly around you forcing you to relive it in the future.

This quote by Tony Robbins is special to me because no matter what I’ve gone through in my life or who I thought I was, I know, at this very moment, I can choose who I will be today and in the future.

Consequently, it was not like this for me all the time though. I allowed my past to tell me who I was and maintain that strangle hold on me, preventing my movement forward.

If you have read my story, you know that I have experienced some, let’s describe them as, interesting, relationships in my life in addition to stockpiles of self-limiting beliefs.

One past belief that dictated my life was that I was not the type of person that could share my feelings. I kept myself closed off from people.

I kept my feelings in a lock-box when it came to relationships. And when I made an attempt to let them out, the experience was not very good. So, I closed that lid faster than The Flash running on water (I like superheroes).

I rarely shared anything too personal with friends or family. That was not something we typically did.

And that is how I was most of my life.

The experiences from my past led me to believe this was who I am because I didn’t know any other way. Even if there were those brief moments in time where I was able to share my feelings, they were not strong or positive enough to overcome the overlying past belief I had.

You continue to repeat the way you have always acted or how you previously handled situations because that is all you have ever known yourself to be. Therefore, your past is in the driver’s seat of the car that is your life and it keeps making the same turns.

The problem for me was I no longer wanted to make the same turns. I was tired of seeing the same mental scenery, over, and over again.

I finally managed to pull that car over. It was my time to get behind the wheel and make the choice to be who I wanted to be and to also strive for more meaningful relationships with others.

I wanted to share my feelings and have deeper connections with people.

I’m sure, if you haven’t got the sense from my content already, I’m certainly more open now than I’ve ever been in my life.

And you know what?

I am the happiest I have been in my life. Don’t get me wrong. I have had plenty of happy moments in my life. What I am talking about now is true inner happiness, free of the heavy weight that was my past.

We get in this pattern of past thinking, especially as the years go on, where we say “Well, that’s how I’ve always been and it’s just who I am.”

Although, is it?

No, it’s not.

You do have the choice to decide.

So, what you will do?

Now it’s your turn.

How does this quote inspire you?

Tell me something from your past that you are allowing to define who you are right now.

What is it holding you back from becoming a better version of you? Will you now make the choice to let go of that past belief, habit, or situation?

Will you decide to let your past be what it is and choose your own future?

Contact me or share your thoughts below in the Comments section.

Let’s get the discussion going.