“Think of tomorrow, the past can’t be mended”, Confucius
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow”, Albert Einstein
“Let go of the past, but keep the lessons it taught you”, Chiara Gizzi
“Learn from the past. Live in the present. Prepare for the future. Your live will be miserable if you do this in any other order.”, Nazim Rahman
Someone I know started a business at a young age. He was very successful and made a lot money. As his income rose, he upgraded his spending habits. Then the market changed and the government regulations changed. His business became unprofitable. Instead of reinventing himself and his business, he simply resorted to living in his past glory days. He did not downgrade his spending habits. Soon he was living on assistance from family members. Twenty five years later he is still surviving on family support.
His cardinal mistake was that he never stopped living in the past. Instead of accepting the reality and do whatever was necessary, he continued to live in the past. To succeed, he has to do what is necessary to earn a living today. This will once again allow him to be successful in the future.
Another person I know does the opposite. He is always dreaming about the future. How things will be? How his life will be? It is great to have a positive outlook but he never does anything to earn a bright future. How can he have a bright future if all he does is daydreaming and wasting time on social media.
Entire organizations have trouble living in the present. People talk about the glory days of their country when they conquered all their neighbors. The glory days of their ethnic group. The glory days of their religion. Such movements are everywhere. “Make America Great Again”. When was America great? When was America not great? It was both at all times. Not great for how the native population was treated. Not great for slavery. But great for its democratic values. Great for accepting immigrants from everywhere. Great for being the savior during the second world war.
Past was never perfect or perfectly horrible. It has always been a combination of good and evil, greatness and mediocrity. We learn from the past. We don’t live or go back to the past. We live in the present and work to build a better future. Future is not something that happens to us. Individually and collectively, we build our future.
Learn from the past but live in the present so that you can have a bright future.