SNEAKERS
I am reading a book titled, "The Courage To Be Disliked." Although, as of this writing I am not finished, it is a fabulous book. The premise of the book is that we choose to be unhappy. It points out that individuals use their past as a cause to affect their unhappy present and future and that this equation is what makes us unhappy. It's all by choice. So, I started thinking about my past and how on point this book seems to be. Most of us use our past as excuses for who we are today. Our past obviously contributed to who we are but in reality, it is not who we really are. Our past can never be changed but our present or future can. However, many of us live in the past because they want excuses to justify a certain behavior or better yet, why they do not want to take risks to venture out into new possibilities. For a person like me who is well read in the area of personal development and who hopes through my writings to inspire some, I too fall prey to this "past" prohibitive way of thinking at times. An example of this is that in a prior career, I was a police officer. I was dispatched to a call to investigate a floater on a body of water. In laymen's term a floater is a presumably dead body floating around. Sure, enough that was exactly what it was. A dead person face down floating around. After using the tools available to bring this lifeless person to shore, I flipped it over. To my shockingly gruesome surprise, what appeared to be an eel or at least, what looked like an eel came out of the deceased's left eye socket. This incident happened many years ago but, it has had a lasting effect on my life. It has had such a significant impact, that I have stopped eating not only eel but anything that has any eel ingredients. This is pretty significant considering, I love sushi.
So, our past is our past. We can't change that part of our life, but we can certainly put our past in perspective and understand that it really is just that, our past and it's sometimes used as an excuse to not do something in our present, as aforementioned, with my eel dilemma. I've been using my eel experience as an excuse for not currently wanting to eat eel. So, what I will be doing the next time I am devouring sushi will be ordering an item with eel. The way I see it, our past is like a pair of sneakers. We have an old pair of sneakers that was helpful in the past but it's now time to set it aside or better yet discard it and purchase a new pair. We do not let our old pair of sneakers interfere with a new brand or model of sneakers we want to purchase. So why would we let out past dictate who we are? We have heard many say, I'm not a morning person or, I'm not a public speaker, or I'm shy, etc. What does that even mean? Those are just excuses not wanting to push yourself into areas that for some reason make you uncomfortable or to find an excuse to justify your predetermined result of failing. This all makes sense because humans are wired to avoid discomfort. But, in avoiding discomfort, you are avoiding challenges that can change your life for the better. I leave you with a quote on point. "Never be defined by your past, it was a lesson, not a life sentence."
Just a thought.
So, our past is our past. We can't change that part of our life, but we can certainly put our past in perspective and understand that it really is just that, our past and it's sometimes used as an excuse to not do something in our present, as aforementioned, with my eel dilemma. I've been using my eel experience as an excuse for not currently wanting to eat eel. So, what I will be doing the next time I am devouring sushi will be ordering an item with eel. The way I see it, our past is like a pair of sneakers. We have an old pair of sneakers that was helpful in the past but it's now time to set it aside or better yet discard it and purchase a new pair. We do not let our old pair of sneakers interfere with a new brand or model of sneakers we want to purchase. So why would we let out past dictate who we are? We have heard many say, I'm not a morning person or, I'm not a public speaker, or I'm shy, etc. What does that even mean? Those are just excuses not wanting to push yourself into areas that for some reason make you uncomfortable or to find an excuse to justify your predetermined result of failing. This all makes sense because humans are wired to avoid discomfort. But, in avoiding discomfort, you are avoiding challenges that can change your life for the better. I leave you with a quote on point. "Never be defined by your past, it was a lesson, not a life sentence."
Just a thought.