You’ll often hear people telling you to let go of your past. I think most of us need to do the exact opposite.
You might go through difficult periods in your life when something that already happened is weighing you down, but this is usually just a temporary situation.
For most of the time, for most of us, our past really doesn’t get in the way. Our memories just aren’t that good.
Now here’s a new and exciting thought. What if your past isn’t a lead anchor that weighs you down, but a shimmering ball of energy that takes your success and happiness to levels you never dreamed of?
With this possibility in mind, I have a few questions that I want to ask you.
What did you love most, want most, dream about when you were twelve years old? What about when you were twenty? Is there a hidden, neglected passion that could become a part of the work you want to do or the life you want to live today?
What about the hard times in your past? What struggles did you overcome? What failures did you have? What did you learn from them? How can you apply that knowledge today, right now?
Here’s a final bit of homework for you. Go through your attic, your basement, your closet or your storage unit and find an important relic from your past. It might be a photo or a toy, a piece of jewelry or clothing.
Take it out and put it somewhere in an honored place where you will see and touch it every day. Use it as your talisman, a constant reminder of all the treasures you have stored up in your past.
Mine is a clay ocarina in the shape of a turtle. I wore it on a silk cord around my neck when I traveled around the country on freight trains, and when I traveled around the Mediterranean as a tour director and an English teacher.
For years I kept it in a drawer, but now I’m wearing it again. Every time I hold it I get feelings of excitement and optimism.
What treasures from your past experience are waiting for you to rediscover them?
