avoid ruminating about your past

When you constantly ruminate about the past, about the things that went wrong, you not only rob yourself of your precious time and attention but also create an incredible amount of dissatisfaction and misery in yourself that impedes you from making forward progress. 

Instead of looking back at your past and your mistakes, start appreciating yourself for all the little things you accomplish each day. It’s easy to recall your errors because the human brain has a negativity bias and it remembers the events accompanied by strong emotions easily. However, when you make it a discipline to focus on the positives, as tiny as they may be, on a consistent basis, you stay inspired and motivated.

Whenever you find yourself in a negative spiral due to your past, take some time and write all your achievements down on a crisp sheet of paper. Think about all your achievements since you were a kid, big or small. Another thing you can do is maintain a daily log of success. This will help you become aware of your accomplishments every day and give you confidence when you find yourself amidst a challenge. 

Don’t let past failures or setbacks hold you down, instead look at them in a positive light. Instead of seeing your previous career/job, relationship or financial decision as a huge mistake, think of it as a necessary step in the grand scheme of things and cherish all the invaluable lessons that you learned during that experience. Think of your past negative experiences as stepping stones for future successes. As Napoleon Hill beautifully put it, “There comes with every experience of temporary defeat, and every failure and every form of adversity, the seed of an equivalent benefit.”

You are more talented and capable than you think you are. Just commit to telling yourself that you’re a winner and acknowledging all your victories on a regular basis. You’ll become unstoppable and your brain will get conditioned to focus on the positives, and inform you that you’re a victor, not a victim, and you can be, do and have anything.