Motivation

Why you shouldn’t let the past define you

Leopold Španovič

21 Oct 17 · 2 min read

Everybody has a past, even a baby who was just born has it — it’s short, but it’s there. And the thing with us and the past is that we like to use it for defining who we are. Even I wrote an article a few days ago with a purpose to declare why I can write the things I am going to write in the future. But why do we need history?

** Offtopic: I have to apologize to myself. I promised myself I am going to write a blog post every day. And yesterday I didn’t. But I learned something. I shouldn’t schedule my tasks for the evening after a day spent on the beach. It’s better to spend a quality time with somebody you love than to waste your time behind a display failing to do something.

Okay. Apologise accepted and now let’s see why I don’t like to define myself by my past. I think people can change and they are changing every day. I believe people can do wonders no matter where and how did they spend time before the moment they do amazing things. I saw and met people who did it. After my first business went bankrupt, I had a choice. First one was that I stopped and defined myself with what happened. And the other was that I go forward, accept the past and try to find what can I learn from it. And then go onward. I choose the second one, and on some days, I wonder if the first one was even an option. Why would somebody choose to die inside a living body? Never mind. All of us have a choice. And we have to respect that.

If you ever had a chance to observe a young toddler trying to walk you could see that he’d failed many times. Did he stop? Would he ever walk if he’d accept the failure and not continue with learning? I don’t believe so. The same goes for business. Nobody is perfect at it. Mistakes we do and stuff we f**k up is part of the process. It is part of the success. Sometimes it seems to me that I am bragging with my failures. It’s not what I meant. The message I want to share is that everybody fails. And we should try and try and try again till we succeed. I see how people who are close to me let the past of the previous day or a week define their future. They allow the fear of failure to enter their minds. And then they stop trying because they don’t want to disappoint themselves again. These moments are the ones when somebody dies inside.

I know. We all know that. At least rational part of us do.

I know. We all know that. At least rational part of us do. So how do we fight the irrational one? With purpose. But the trick is I believe we don’t have one. It’s a scary thought, but I frankly think that’s how it is. I was in a bad mood for quite a long time when I accepted that notion. Maybe I shouldn’t think like that. But I did. Till someday I accepted my choice and realized that purpose is not discovered, it’s made. With defining my purpose, accepting that failure is part of the process and a little bit of repetition, my life is moving towards the finish line I set for myself.

Thanks for reading. If you want more, of that tiny wisdom about business, life, motivation, organization and so on… don’t forget to subscribe (click here).

Edited: 6 years ago by Leopold Španovič

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