Nostalgia is killing your dreams

Is there an event or series of events in your life that you find yourself often reminiscing over, whether by yourself or with your friends? You probably find yourself saying that "remember when?" and "those were the days"

We tend to have nostalgia about good times in our past. But whether you realize it or not, there is a good chance that that very thing is hurting your chances of success in the future. Now before you disagree, realize that I think that great memories of the past are a good thing.  It is just the attitude we tend to take about our current times that are killing us.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't it always seem like what we are really saying is those were the good old days and now they are gone and this is what we are left with? We used to be great. Life used to be awesome. Wonderful things used to happen to us. We are fond of the lives we used to live and dread the one we have now.

Why not use the glory days of our past as a template for the future? Sure we can never go back to exactly the way things were before, but certainly they can be better than they are now right? What circumstances made life so much better then? Did life really change all that much? Or is it simply how we look at things that changed?

If what changed is that we became jaded and beaten down by negative experiences with life, through good will and conscious effort we can repair our damaged hearts and minds. If it is circumstance that made life better then we can find ways of changing our circumstance to be more like what used to be. Again, it can never be exactly like it was. But, there is no reason why life cannot be just as good or better than it was at the highest point in our past.

Just because we accomplished something great once does not mean we are done. We have within us near infinite potential if only we are willing to work for it. We can go on accomplishing great things every day for as long as we live. Our past accomplishments just serve to show definitively the least of what we can do and have already done. We can do so much more. The only limits that exist for us are those that we place upon ourselves or those that we allow other people to place upon us.

Stop looking at your past as the pinnacle of your life and everything afterwards as the long inevitable downhill ride. Instead take stock of the things you have already done and point out how each thing has pushed your limits that much further than they were before and enabled you to know and do more. Resolve to use past victories as the momentum, the fuel if you will, to push you on to future victories.

Never give up. Never surrender. Live each and every day as if it were your last and strive to be as far ahead of the pack as you can so that you are an example for others to follow. But, more importantly, be an example for yourself to follow.