What Your Past Does and Doesn’t Do

“Your past doesn’t define you, it prepares you.” –Darren Hardy

We all have a past. And that past is filled with both failure and success, things we’re proud of and things we regret. The question is, How will we choose to view ourselves in relation to it? Will we define ourselves through the lens of the past? Or, will we see it as a means of preparation for whatever comes next in life?

Because if we’re able to do the latter — to look at it as a means of preparation — then we can better deal with failures and setbacks we’ve encountered. Instead of identifying with the failures of the past, we can choose to learn from them and grow from them, seeing them as stepping stones, not the final word.

This attitude can also help us better handle any success we’ve experienced. Instead of being content to identify ourselves with past success, we’ll be focused on how to continue to grow. We’ll reject the temptation to always look back to the good ol’ days but never move forward.

If we choose to see it all — the good and the bad — as a means of preparation, then we can hold the past with an open hand: learning from it, but refusing to be defined by it; growing from it, but never held captive by it. Because in the end, who we’re becoming is far more important than what we once were.