Past

The past

The past and its consequences seem to linger long past their date of conception. The bad money choices that led to debt. The poor study habits that produced poor grades. The comment that hurt feelings. The slight that embittered someone who used to trust you.

You can’t alter the past. As much as we desire to own a time machine, it isn’t going to happen. The best way to deal with the past is to make better choices in the future — and keep moving in the direction of opportunity, willing to adjust your goals as you go.

My poor study habits in college led to a poor GPA. But it didn’t stop me from earning a master’s degree or a doctorate. I had to make different choices about where I went to school for those degrees. I couldn’t change what happened at eighteen — but the eighteen-year-old version of me is not the fifty-year-old version of me. With lessons learned, opportunity can still be pursued.

The past was an event. The consequences are real. But you have the agency and the skills to move forward.

What’s one consequence from your past that once felt like a permanent ceiling — and how did you eventually find a way to move through or around it?