When I was younger, I spent more time thinking about the past—everything I did wrong, everything I regret, putting myself down because I made a lot of mistakes. And yeah… it’s the truth. That’s part of why I’m in the garage right now.
Over the years I went through a couple psychologists. Most of them sucked, except for one. She was a psychologist at Cal State Long Beach, and I only got a few sessions because the university only allows a limited number (like five or six). That alone taught me something: I didn’t realize how many people need help until I saw how booked they were—all day, every day.
One day she did this exercise with me that messed me up in a good way. She told me: “Sit over here and imagine you as the kid who made all those mistakes. Tell me how you feel at that age.” Then she said, “Now sit over here. Would you judge that version of you the way you’ve been judging yourself? Why or why not?”
It made me tear up because it hit me: you can only do what you can with what you know at the time.
That was the first time I started looking at my past differently.
Now, when I look forward, I set goals. Maybe they’re lofty, maybe not—but I try to approach it little by little, because little things add up to big things.
For example, I want to lose weight. I don’t have a lot of time, so I work out 20 minutes a day, five times a week. That’s 100 minutes a week. Around 400 minutes a month. And over 12 months that’s 4,800 minutes—about 80 hours of work.
So something that used to feel impossible because I’m busy turns into something doable. And that gives me hope that the same math applies to other parts of my future too.
Question: Do you spend more time thinking about the past or the future—and what made that shift for you?
Subscribe: If this hit, subscribe — I post Tue/Thu/Sun, Street Cinema Saturdays, + daily prompts.
Leave a Reply