“The past is but the beginning of a beginning.”
~H.G. Wells

The other day I was in session with a client, and she remarked that even though her life had been so tough that other people often wondered how she could have endured all that she did, she was glad for all of her life. She regretted nothing. All that had happened to her had made her who she was, she shared, and as she loved her current life, she could turn her back on none of her past.

Few of us reach this sense of peace so easily, and yet, this is a peace that sets us free for the future. I’ve come to realize that all of my past brought me to where I am now – it gave me my strengths as well as my weaknesses, my loves as well my detests. Without my past, there would have been no beginning to get me where I am today.

When we can see the past as simply the start of something new – our fight with a co-worker as a chance to build a new relationship; our harsh boss who taught us how not to manage; our dead-end job that taught us what we truly want and how we truly want to contribute; our disastrous personal relationship that taught us to fight for what mattered to us and take care of ourselves first – when we see these things as a chance to begin anew, we have the chance to move away from the chains of the past.

You might get to the point of no regrets, like my client shared with me. Or you might still regret some of what happened, but still find the way to see it as a new beginning. Either way, you can let go of the hold your past has on you and start the life you were meant to have.

Where am I letting the past define my present? How can I see it as simply a beginning of a beginning?
Please leave a comment to share.

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To move away from your past, contact Robyn at rmcleod@chatsworthconsulting.com.

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