Life As a Book Vs a Hammer

Treat your past as a book that you learn from instead of a hammer that you beat yourself up about.  — Bill Whittle

When I first read that quote, I thought, WOW, how often have I done the hammer option rather than the book option?

It’s true. In the past, I frequently beat myself up about choices I made or didn’t make, things I did or didn’t do and a myriad of other things in life.

Then I realized that I can’t change my past, no matter how much I beat myself up about it, I just can’t.

However, I can forgive myself for my past choices and make new choices from this second onward. I love this quote from Don Felt.

Forgiveness Means Giving Up All Hope for a Better Past – Don Felt

Again, so true. Once I stopped wishing for a better past, a different past, moving forward got a lot easier. You see, I didn’t have tons of baggage holding me back and holding me down.

I could learn from my past and start choosing something different!

So, where could you forgive your past choices and start moving forward?

What can you learn from rather than use to beat yourself up about?

What choices do you actually have that all the blame, shame, regret, guilt and beating yourself up prevented you from seeing?

And the even tougher question; what wouldn’t you allow yourself to be, do and have before because you thought you thought that your past prevented you from doing so?

Yes, what did you decide you didn’t deserve because of your past?

What did you feel guilty about having because you thought you had to pay for it instead of choosing it?

What can you do to change that?

  • Ask yourself what choices are you beating yourself up about.
  • Write those down.
  • Now read each one and say that you forgive yourself for choosing it and for continuing to beat yourself up because of it.
  • Do that for each one.
  • Note the ones that you don’t forgive yet and mark those.
  • The next day, go through the ones that you marked and forgive those again.
  • Repeat until you have forgiven them all.

Remember, you are forgiving YOU, no one else, just YOU.

If you need help, seek someone out to assist you (yes, I am available for that) or get a copy of my book Launchpad 2020: The Art and [Rocket] Science of Breakthroughs and Possibilities and break down those barriers.

You deserve to forgive yourself. You deserve to be free.


Launchpad 2020: The Art and [Rocket] Science of Breakthroughs and Possibilities by clicking the purple button below.