Whether what happened to you in the past was good or bad, it’s time to let it go and move on with your life.

So many people spend so much time fixated on what happened to them in the past.  People look back to what they feel were the best days in their life, and they feel that life would be so much better today if they could get those days back.  Others look back at the pain and suffering they went through, and all they can think is how much better life would be today if those things hadn’t happened.

Whether it was good or bad, our past is what brought us to our present, and our present is all we’ve got.  Your life is happening today, so live in it today.

I’m not saying to forget what happened to you before.  I believe that it’s important to remember your past, so that you can understand your present, and so that you can learn lessons from the past, both good and bad.

If you made some bad choices in the past, learn the lessons from them so you don’t make the same bad choices again.  If bad things were done to you by other people, think about how you can use those bad experiences to be a better, stronger person today.  Can you take your hurt and find a way to help other people today?  Are you making sure that you aren’t hurting someone else the same way that someone hurt you?

If things were great in the past, think about what choices you can make today to get back some of those good times.  It may not be possible.  You’re never going to get back to going to the state championships in high school.  But what you can do is be glad that you had that experience, because it helped to shape who you are today.

Every experience we have in our lives shapes us.  But what a lot of people don’t realize is that we get to choose how those experiences shape us.  We can choose to be bitter and angry at someone hurting us, or we can choose to learn and grow.  We can choose to mourn the loss of the “good old days” or we can choose to be happy that we were lucky enough to have those great experiences, and carry that happiness with us today.

Each of us gets to make that choice, and we get to make it every single day.  What will you choose?