“Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today.” – Byways of Blessedness

It’s been said that the majority of conversations by men over 40 are about the past — sometimes it’s about the “good old days” and sometimes it’s about the deals gone bad, the “if I only had” stories, the missed opportunities, etc.

Letting our “sins and mistakes of yesterday” dominate our thinking today robs us of our present joy and our future happiness. It causes us to miss the real opportunity of TODAY!

John Maxwell, in his outstanding best seller, Failing Forward, gives some great practical advice: “To move forward today, you must learn to say good-bye to yesterday’s hurts, tragedies and baggage. You can’t build a monument to past problems and fail forward.

“Take time right now to list the negative events from your past that may still be holding you hostage. For each item you list, go through the following exercise:

1. Acknowledge the pain.
2. Grieve the loss.
3. Forgive the person.
4. Forgive yourself.
5. Determine to release the event and move on.”

Your best days are definitely ahead of you if you treat your “mistakes” as necessary lessons to be learned. If you understand that each lesson brings with it a certain amount of wisdom, you can understand how truly enhanced your life is becoming. Many people can’t achieve the success of their dreams because they won’t leave their past behind. They won’t tear down the monuments they’ve built to their old hurts and problems.

One of my all-time favorite affirmation verses comes from the Apostle Paul who said, “…but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal...” One of the best teachings I ever heard on this was from a motivational speaker whose name has escaped me, but whose message didn’t: “In life there are no mistakes, only lessons.”

And that’s worth thinking about.

“Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and a person can find every truth connected with his being, if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul.” — As A Man Thinketh

The classic book Acres of Diamonds is the story of a person who sold his home and land to travel far and wide in search of diamonds, only to die penniless. As the story goes, the new owner discovered diamonds on the very property that the old owner had ignored.

A lot of times I think we act the same way when we’re trying to “fix” something in our life. Whether it’s happiness or self-esteem or love that we seek, many times we look outside of ourselves to find the answer. We look to a spouse, a friend, a child or a parent to fill the void. Perhaps we expect the answer to come from our pursuit of our occupation or other interests. Or we expect a new home, a new car or a new boat to satisfy our “hunger.”

But, alas, like the poor farmer in Acres of Diamonds, our search comes up empty handed. And just like the story, diamonds are waiting to be discovered in our own back yard. As James Allen points out, the only way to find the gold and diamonds is to “dig deep into the mine of the soul.”

One of my most favorite authors, Jim Rohn, says, “The greatest source of unhappiness comes from inside.” Conversely, that’s also where the greatest (and only) source of happiness comes from.

Instead of searching far and wide, spend some time every day searching inside. Instead of expecting something outside to fill you up, learn to fill yourself from within. Make a commitment to read more of the material that will help you discover who you are. Make a decision to grow. As Jim Rohn also says, “What you become directly influences what you get.”

And that’s worth thinking about.

“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.” — As A Man Thinketh

Most everyone understands the biblical concept of sowing and reaping because we can grasp the simplicity of the logic. If we were to plant corn in our backyard garden we wouldn’t expect spinach to come up. But even though we can grasp the logic, we don’t always act as if we understand the power of this principle. And we certainly don’t act as if this principle will affect us.

An example: For many years my morning ritual began with a thorough reading of the newspaper, most days spending an hour or more before dashing off to the office. I did not know then that our minds are most impressionable immediately upon rising in the morning and just before sleep in the evening.

Fresh from the reading (and thoughts) of the day’s murders, indictments, invasions by foreign dictators, and all other manner of “news”, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that my sowing of these thoughts would reap an “attitude” toward the rush hour drivers who were “conspiring” to slow down my arrival at work. Thus, by the time I did arrive, I had set the tone for my day, and it was not a positive one.

I gave up my morning ritual thirteen years ago and replaced it with a ritual of reading and meditating on some works that will sow “good thoughts” and thus reap “good results.” I wasn’t aware at the time that this was some sound advice offered up by the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about.”

We always reap what we sow and that is especially true with our thoughts. As Emmet Fox writes, “The secret of life then is to control your mental states, for if you will do this the rest will follow. To accept sickness, trouble, and failure as unavoidable, and perhaps inevitable, is folly, because it is this very acceptance by you that keeps these evils in existence. Man is not limited by his environment. He creates his environments by his beliefs and feelings. To suppose otherwise is like thinking that the tail can wag the dog.”

And that’s worth thinking about.

“She who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.” – As A Man Thinketh

Several weeks ago I shared with our readers the story of Anne Jensen, a California woman, who celebrated her 80th birthday in a very special way — skydiving for the first time in her life.

Several months ago I told readers about Doris Eaton Travis, the last of the Ziegfeld dancers. She just celebrated her 102nd birthday and later this month will continue her annual tradition of dancing on Broadway.

Anne and Doris are just two of many examples of people who believe it’s never too late to live your dreams.

Most of us give up on the dreams that are important to us far too early. We think of all the reasons why we’ll never reach our dream (age, lack of money, lack of time, lack of education, etc.) instead of all the reasons why it’s important to us. Doris and Anne have at least two lessons for us:

1. Age and time are our own self-imposed limits and barriers,
2. At some point we must act, even if the odds appear to be against us.

Bob Proctor likes to quote Napoleon Hill when teaching in this area: “What a different story people would have to tell if they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming purpose.”

Breathe some new life into that big dream you’re about to let die. Fall in love with it again and become an obsessive lover of it. As Bob says, “You’re not on this Planet to live someone else’s dream.”

And that’s worth thinking about.