“ The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde

Everyone has an identity, something we are all known for. How you see yourself and how you view the world around you.

This is made mostly from our experiences, Our upbringing, dramas and traumas.

As you grow and learn new things, your beliefs tend to change and each new experience gives you a different outlook on the world  – You begin to notice principles and belief systems from the past that no longer serve your best interests and these experience can sometimes be pain from our past ( could be failure in finances, Education, relationship) that we cannot let go because we believe it defines us.

If you look at the most inspirational figures who have attained extraordinary levels of success and dig into their past stories it is most times filled with uncertainties, Traumas and travails.

From Celebrated Musicians to Actors and public figures you would hear stories of past dramas, traumas and some scenarios that made them who they are today..

While some make their past failures work in their favour – by overcoming a circumstance, others are too scared and want to “suffer” and play the “victim”. You should not see your past as a definitive moment of what your future would look like.

You fall in love and it doesn’t go as planned – you have lessons to do better in your next relationship – You start a business venture that fails – You grow with the lessons when you launch your next business – You have past “mess” in your life – you make that “mess a message.”

Everyday we are surrounded by individuals who have used their past “failures” as a springboard for growth. – Nobody’s perfect and once you see that everyone is trying to get better you can finally allow yourself some grace to grow.

Holding on to your past failures and mistakes  instead of growing from them is like using your present to pay for a past you can do nothing about.

Your past is not your future – Learn to take the lessons from it to learn about the future.

 

Here Are 3 reasons your past should not hold you back

1. Everyone has a past they are not proud of ( Dramas, Traumas) : 

Everyone has a past, SInners and Saints alike. That past should not hold you back or keep you from growing or getting better. You are allowed to grow and learn from yours.

Think of anyone you look up to who is successful and try to dig into the stories that made them who they are today – BIographies help here – you’d see they did it in spite of their past circumstances.

When you get to a point when the pain from our past becomes too much – and you can work your way to survive it – it gives you the super confidence to take on new challenges. – Life is full of those.

How do you do this?

By doing the ordinary till you get better. The only way to make your past one you are proud of is to look at your life and find one thing you can work on – one ordinary task you can do over and over again till you get good at it.

Most times when we want to change our life, we want it to go from bad to great at once – you don’t get in shape overnight – you achieve it be hitting the gym daily – doing the ordinary task of “working out” for 15 minutes daily till you are strong enough to start doing it for much longer – slow growth is better than no growth.

2. Never Let Others hold it against you

If you have ever tried to do something new and you are held back because of your past beliefs or “ what people would say once they knew about it” – You would never learn from your past.

Sadly, it happens even to the best of us. That is why you see people clinging so desperately to belief and ideologies that hurts more than it helps them.

It is okay to have new beliefs that contradicts your previous ones – that is why we learn everyday. You should not resist change because you are scared of others holding it against you – “This You”?.

Alvin Toffler once wrote: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Your ability to learn and unlearn from past views and ideologies would open you to new experiences and results.

If anyone wants to hold your growth against you? – Ignore them.

You want to grow and if your past experience would help you why not.

“ when life makes you have to put up with mean and hateful people, just think of ’em as sandpaper. They may scratch you, rub you the wrong way… But eventually, you’ll end up smooth and polished. And the sandpaper? It’s just gon’ be worn out and ugly.”  – ( Sally from Fighting Temptation )

 

3. Don’t Apologise – it prepares you from success.

 

Your past happened! – The only thing you can do about it is learn from it. – Nothing else – no amount of rationalising can change that. 

Ever had an argument where you don’t have the points you need in the heat of the moment but when you get home your brain suddenly brings back every “good” point you could have made?

Don’t beat yourself up, rather save those points for when next you are talking about that topic.

This is the same with your past – life would always throw curveballs at you and you would always fail and make mistakes as you grow.