The Paralysis of Looking Back

There’s an old saying that goes, “You can’t drive a car looking in the rear view mirror.” It’s a saying a lot of us need to take to heart. Especially those of us who have goals we want to achieve.

If you have no direction it doesn’t matter if you’re looking ahead, behind, or to the side. Your car’s not even moving so you’re free to dwell on whatever you want to dwell on. But if you have drive and you want to go somewhere, you need to look ahead and not think too much about what’s behind you.

Okay. Now it’s time to abandon the metaphor. Too often we prevent ourselves for reaching our goals by focusing on the things we can’t change. We start saying things like, “It’s too late for me to invest in the stock market. I should have done it 10 years ago.” or “The real estate market is slow right now. I’ll invest when it picks up some.” These are excuses. There’s nothing you can do about what happened or didn’t happen 10 years ago. There’s nothing you can do about current market conditions. But what you can do is take stock of your current situation and look for the opportunities available to you now.

For example, if you’re still kicking yourself for not buying a stock when your research showed it was about to explode; you may miss out on another stock that’s poised for a major move. There’s always another opportunity in the stock market. You just have to find it.

You could choose not to invest in the real estate market because it’s in a slump, or you can realize that slumps are the best times to buy. Prices are depressed now. It’s the perfect time to buy!

There’s something to be said for evaluating previous choices. You want to learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them. But once you’ve learned your lesson; move on! You have nothing to gain from ruminating on something you cannot change.

Your time is better spent moving towards your goals. What opportunities are available to you now? What can you do today that will make your tomorrow better? You can’t change opportunities lost in the past, but you can prevent yourself from losing out on the opportunities available to you now.

Now the question is: What will you say to yourself ten years from now? Will you say, “I wish I’d invested ten years ago?” or will it be “Should I take the Benz or the Beamer to the golf course?”

The choice is yours. You can continue to dwell in the past and go nowhere or you can let go of your bad choices and start making good ones today.