Don’t Be Ruled By Your Past Mistakes

Perhaps one of the biggest stumbling blocks to becoming successful
is past regrets. Too many times we become so obsessed with all of
the times in the past when we were unable to achieve our goals that
we believe we are doomed to fail at anything we do.

What actually happens is that we "program" ourselves to fail. We
are still living in the past, unable to break away from the "failure
chain" that links us to our past selves. So we doom ourselves to
repeating the same old mistakes over and over again.

In order to do things differently, we must learn to be different.
Our thoughts, actions and attitudes must all be different than they
were in the past. And one big way to be different is in the way we
perceive our mistakes.

There is no room in the life of a successful person for regret.
Regret is a waste. It does nothing to enhance who you are, and, in
reality, all it does is feed on you. Regret will bleed you dry
emotionally, physically and spiritually.

If you want to be free to achieve your dreams and goals and
live your life to its fullest potential, you must not allow regret
to keep you chained to the past in a prison of "should haves" and
"could haves".

One of the best ways to loosen the power that regret has on you
is to accept your past mistakes. Allow yourself to be human and
realize that, as a human, you will make mistakes, and that's okay,
because that is how you learn.

But now, let's take it one step further. Not only should you
accept your past mistakes - you should embrace them. That's
right, be grateful that you are aware of your mistakes.

Why in the world should you do that? Because if you are aware
that you have made a mistake, then you are also aware that you need
to do something different next time around to be successful.

To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So you
can look at what you did in the past to achieve the wrong results -
and use that as your blueprint for what you need to do to achieve
the right results.

So when those past mistakes come to mind, don't get stuck in regret
and allow yourself to follow the same path that caused the mistakes
in the first place. Instead, embrace those mistakes and use them as
a valuable learning tool - the roadmap to success that they actually
are.

Author: Ken Harness