The door to the pool changing room opened and a woman entered, holding the hand of a whimpering child. Mom was telling her young child that sometimes we all have to do things we don’t want to do. For good measure, she added, “Even adults.”
It didn’t take long to discover why the child wasn’t happy about attending swimming lessons. Mom said, “I know your last teacher wasn’t very nice, but you might have one this time you really like. You can’t judge this experience by what the last one was like.”
Wise words indeed! I know this is something I have been guilty of. When an experience is unpleasant, the last thing I want to do is repeat it. What I fail to remember is circumstances change which means the result may not be the same as in a previous encounter.
If I don’t want to let my past dictate my future, I need to have the courage to try again. There is nothing I can do about the past. What I do today will determine my future. It’s up to me to decide which one I’m going to focus on.
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell