November 20th 2009 - Reinventing Ourselves

The concept I want to write about today is dropping our personal history. At some point in most of our lives, it becomes vital, in my opinion. Of course, your opinion is more important. It is hard to reinvent ourselves if we are carrying the weight of all of our past mistakes with us, everywhere we go. This is a time in history where many of us will be forced to reinvent ourselves. Old ways are quickly becoming obsolete and yielding to new ways. Reinventing yourself means that you are creating a new you. That means the old you is history. I am writing about this, because it is something that has challenged me, personally. I mean dropping the ancient history that has nothing to do with what I am anymore.

We sometimes spend so much time focused on the rear view mirror, that we lose focus on what's right in front of us. We lose our opportunity to focus on the Now, as well as the future, when we allow ourselves to be mired in our past mistakes. We spend so much time remembering how we got to where we are, we are not able to focus on where we want to go. It's OK to review your past mistakes, so you don't fall prey to them again. When you become obsessed with them - churning them over and over again in your mind - you get stuck. This can be difficult to overcome, because the mind is habitual and loves to churn over and over again. In order to overcome this, I believe, you can proactively insert a new pattern for your mind to churn. When the old pattern comes up, insert the new pattern. Tell your mind where you want to go, and refuse to get stuck in the old pattern again. Keep inserting the new pattern when the old returns. I've been working on this. It ain't easy. It takes time. Maybe a lot of time. I believe that if you don't give up, you'll eventually get over the hump. I'm still climbing the hump on a few issues, but I've noticed that I am closer to the tipping point, because I catch my repetitive patterns and stop them much more quickly.

You use the rear view mirror sparingly when driving, because you are moving forward. The faster you are moving forward, the more essential it is to pay attention to what's ahead of you. If you watch the rear view mirror all the time, you won't get very far. In fact, you may end up crashing into what's ahead of you. You can't change history, but you can shift your focus from it. All you really have is Now.

Reinvented (and probably not for the last time),
Alan