The past, the present and the future.

When I was a child there was a TV Show which featured a comedian named Flip Wilson. He used to do a comedy routine about a church which he called “The Church of What's Happening Now”. He portrayed the church's Pastor. He would always start his sermons by saying “At this church you won’t hear much about what happened yesterday, because at this church we are here to talk about what's happening now”. At first I thought his slogan was just catchy and cute. But I slowly realized that he was trying to teach us something about life. The past is in a sense “yesterday” it’s gone, we can remember it, we can learn from it, but we can’t change it. Our focus should be on today and tomorrow. These are the things we can do something about, our today (the present) and our tomorrow (the future).

I think it’s unfortunate that many people find themselves stuck in the past. The past is full of bad things for many of us on this planet. Many of us can reflect upon their past life, their family’s past history, their cultural or ethnic group’s past history or their country’s past history and think of something bad, horrible or unforgivable that happened to them in the past. Personally I think history is very important for us to know and understand, chiefly so we don’t repeat mistakes. But the fact is that these things happened in the past.

Unfortunately, I frequently meet men and women who are metaphorically dragging the past around with them. When you speak to them the conversation inevitably returns to the past. Sometimes the things that happened to people in the past were terrible and I would never make light of them or say they aren't important. But I have found that it’s hard to move forward, while looking backwards.

I am not saying to forget the past, but I am saying it shouldn’t be your focus. I believe “your present” and “your future” should be your focus. I believe that in order to move forward you must divide life into “then” (the past) “now” (the present) and “next” (the future). I feel that you have to get to a point mentally and emotionally where you can say: That was then, this is now and what do I do next to make my life better now and in the future.

Now you know the three little words, which can help you be successful; then, now and next. I hope this helps you move your life forward.

✍🏼 Written by Shortsegments

All images courtesy of Pixabay and Shutterstock.

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