We live on a spectrum. On one side is our past and on the other side is our future. The present moment and what we experience now is right in the middle.
Our past only exists in our minds and we know it happened exactly as it should simply because it happened. We get to decide what happened, what to think about it, and what we want to make it mean for us now. When we’re past focused, we’re defined by our past. We tell the story of our past over and over again and relive it every time, usually perpetuating pain. Remember that our power, choice and agency is in our thoughts which means all of this is a choice. If there’s pain in your past, do you want to continue living there?
Our future also only exists in our minds. This is where we find imagination, possibility, creativity, learning, growth, and change. Being future focused means who we are is a combination of who we want to be, what we want to do, and what we want to create. We can believe absolutely anything we want about our future selves. There are no limits.
That’s both exciting and scary for our brains! Usually we end up with a bit of cognitive dissonance when we imagine a different future than currently exists. This is because our hearts want to be excited, but our brains find it difficult to firmly tap into imagination. Reliving the past is easy because the thoughts are already there. The mental pathways and existing beliefs have been practiced for so many years. The work is in imagining a different future. In order to do this, we must go to the future often. See my last post on My Future Story for what that looks like! :)
If we always look to our past for what we can do in our future, then we’ll always be limited by our past.
The truth is: we get to define ourselves by what we believe.
Who we believe we are is just a collection of thoughts we have about ourselves. Looking to both the past and future is the best way to create the results we want. The past can be a helpful learning tool, as long as we don’t allow the limiting beliefs to hold us back. See my prior post “I didn’t grow up as an athlete” for what that looks like :)
Rinse and repeat?
OR
Possibility and purpose?
Where do you want to live?
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT WHAT IT TAKES TO HAVE A PERFORMANCE MINDSET?
