You will never move forward living in the past. Learn from it. Improve from it. Remember it and conjure it when needed. But for God’s sake, quit living in it. Especially if you think things were better there. Either way, you can’t move on without letting go.
We all need to learn from our past. Most of the time when we make this statement it’s with regard to a failure. But what if you did something great and you can’t seem to get back to it? Dwelling on this particular point is no less damaging and the sooner we move on the sooner we give ourselves the opportunity to improve again.
The longer we hold on. The longer it will be until we breakthrough. Period.
From a failure angle the correlations are more obvious. Think that things will never improve and things won’t. Decide that things will just end up like they did the last time. Ya-dah. They end up like the last time. The brain controls your world. Feed it shit thoughts. Get shit results.
So how do you move on. It’s easy as hell for people to say “move on” and or “let go”, but the reality is it’s easier said and done. Get in similar situations and the urge to perform the way you did previously is hard to overcome. Sometimes to let go you have to work through.
In sport, visualizing and rehearsing what you want to do, WELL PRIOR, to an activity is paramount. I say well prior because it’s really likely that visualizing an event the first time will take you down the old paths. It’s here that you stop, identify the mental process, correct it, and start again. Repeat as necessary.
Another great strategy sounds like a joke but isn’t. I want you to believe. And one of the easiest ways to believe is to tell yourself as often as possible that you can achieve whatever it is you are attempting. And yes I am referring to daily affirmations. They sound corny. But they work.
A final method is to become someone else. If Pat Fellows can’t do it, can I create a Super Pat Fellows to become when I need him? A dude that has all the powers needed to power through the past. Who doesn’t consider any other story lines.
In 2007, on the day before I was to swim 32 miles in the Gulf of Mexico a friend of mine asked me “Can you even swim that far?” My answer was simple and true. “I’ve never considered that I couldn’t.”
Evaluate your past. Take away a lesson. Then ignore it as needed.
#hugsandhi5s
