Facts of the Present and Past

Don’t be so hung up on the past. At this present moment, do you find yourself asking if you should’ve done something else, or could’ve been making yourself more productive, or you would’ve done that nagging task if you just reminded yourself at the time? Please stop thinking. Don’t over-stress yourself on the banalities of those tiny decisions because they don’t make a difference. Instead, close your eyes and think of something blank. Our past mistakes aren’t something that can be over-written, edited with a few clicks on your profile page. They already happened, and you can’t reverse time and fix those mistakes. What you can do is think of what you can do now and then do it. There’s nothing better than knowing you can make a decision now that will impact the future.

Of course, some might call me impossible. Let me give you a scenario. You’re driving to work and there’s something you’ve forgotten to do before you left. You think, “Damn, I should’ve done that before I left.” Stop, breathe, and listen to your body. Are you tense? Are neurons firing off giving you a fight or flight experience? That may be indication you are stressing yourself for no good reason. The fact is, you have no control of those actions anymore. They have already happened and you can’t do anything about it. What can you do about it now? Could you call your significant other to deal with that task? Do you have to wait and do it after work? Alternatives pop up, reasonable ones with some level of action you can take right now. If you have followed this process successfully, you may have saved minutes of your time worrying with a proper solution.

This process can be learned today. However, let me give you a caveat and say it may take some practice, but I believe if you can follow a methodology, you can feel better about yourself at the end of the day. Stress accumulates to something when gone unnoticed. I find friends who go through similar situations all of the time, and it is a signal to tell them to stop worrying; life will continue.