I was recently reminded of a little illustration I have used often. It goes something like this.

When you drive home today, you’ve got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you’ve got a little bitty rear view mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rear view mirror is so small is because what’s happened in your past is not near as important as what’s in your future. –Joel Osteen

Ok! There is much truth there.  It is important that we get a clear perspective of what is ahead and where we are going. With that in mind we can increase the momentum to reaching our destination.  If we spend so much time focusing on our past- we can literally come to a complete halt with any forward movement.

But ya’ll!  We have a rear view mirror for a reason!  We need to at least give it appropriate consideration.

Too often we blitz through life, through circumstances and relationships always looking at the next thing in the windshield and never looking back.  I’m not talking just 20 or 30 years back.  I’m talking what happened this morning in the conversation with our spouse.  Or the issue that came up at work last week.

Where in our lives, do we make space to even observe or reflect what we are experiencing?  and why?

What is the behavior that we exhibit?

What is the attitude that is bringing about success?  or keeping us from it?

What is the emotion that is coming up over and over and causing us to bog down?

The answers to these questions address…

• how you want to live?
• how you want to be remembered by people in your world?
• what you want to be true of you in the long run?

Author Jeff Goins recently posted,  “If you want to know what your dream is, don’t look forward. Look backward. Your past doesn’t dictate your future, but it can inform it.”

No, we can’t drive a car- or get where we want to go- by looking in our rear view mirror. That is absurd.  But it is important that we take time to glance back

to notice

to observe what is happening and change course if need be.

We have a rear view mirror for a reason! Click To Tweet
Our past can tell us many things;

about ourselves,

our decisions that continue to influence our future,

out behaviors and thoughts that are are keeping us from going where we really want to go.

So…keep the rear view mirror in perspective.  It’s small for a reason.  But it’s also there for a reason.

What do you see in the rear view mirror today?