Looking Back

#inspiration, achievement, dreams,I have a friend whose son has recently achieved his longtime dream of becoming a commercial pilot. She told me a story of one of his first flights and gave me permission to share.

Her son came home and said, “Mom, I was always the child that wanted to sit in an aisle seat with the hope of being able to see into the cockpit. I would lean into the aisle and watch for the cockpit door to be opened so I could get a glimpse inside. At the time I wondered if I would ever be able to fly an airplane.”

On one of his first flights, he looked back when a flight attendant opened the door to ask a question. There he saw people down the aisle of the plane, straining to get a look into the cockpit, where he now sat. This moment took him back to the childhood memory and reinforced that he has achieved his dream.

I loved this story and thought of how sometimes we need to look back to where we once were in order to see how much we’ve accomplished. I’ve been told there are only two good reasons for looking into the past; one is to learn from it and the other is to see how far we’ve come.

This is a good reminder for me. I can easily get frustrated because I haven’t achieved all that I hoped to. The next time this happens, I need to stop and think of the progress I have made. I may not be where I wanted to be but I am not where I once was.

Sometimes the only way to realize how far I’ve come is to remember where I started from. This is a good lesson for all of us.

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