.png)
“For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.” – Mark Twain
I’ve been thinking about the past for a while. Looking back at all the successes, all the failures, and all the memories I’ve had in general, I’ve realized that I lived an okay life. Not glamorous, but not too bad. However, I find myself still having trouble moving on from the mistakes I’ve made.
It’s not like they haunted me, but when I look back I constantly thought to myself “If only I had done this one thing differently” or “If only I could go back in time.”
Then I remember the film, Napoleon Dynamite, and the protagonist’s crazy uncle, Uncle Rico. This man was obsessed with his glory days playing football in his youth. He would say similar things I did when I reminisced; “If only the coach put me in, we would’ve went to state, and I’d be rich and famous yadda, yadda, yadda.
Whenever Uncle Rio had his time on screen, I would laugh. I thought to myself, “Why can’t he just forget about his stupid past obsession that nobody cares about?” And then it hit me. I was doing the same thing.
All too often we complain about the past we could’ve had or should’ve had. Even though we know the past is untouchable by any individual, rich or poor, dead or alive, we still act as if the power to change it lies within our words.
We have to realize that we can’t wish the troubles of our past away. They must be dealt with here and now in the following ways:
Stop acting like Uncle Rico
No more ‘what if’s’ and ‘if only’s’. Stop dwelling on the past to make yourself feel better in the present. Let’s use Uncle Rico in another example. He went so far as to dump his girlfriend just to video tape himself throwing footballs over and over. And after all those videos, nothing has changed for him. He still lives in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Did he change the past? No. Will he still be making the same videos? You’d better believe it. Don’t be like Uncle Rico.
Accept your past
If you can’t move on from the past, there is no way you can truly continue forward. You must accept the past (all the mistakes you’ve made, all the challenges you’ve overcome) and use what you’ve learned from those experiences to shape the present. The only time you truly live in is in the present anyway. Value the time you have now instead of trying to squeeze value out of events that you can’t alter.
Experiment with your future
In my above quote, Mark Twain said it best. The future is your own little experiment. You can’t predict the future, so you might as well take a chance. Heck, even Uncle Rico experimented with his phony time machine. Sure, it didn’t work, but he took a chance. Forget the doubts that cloud your mind and the insecurities that stifle your progress. Try something new and if you mess up, think if it as just apart of the trial and error process.
Napoleon Dynamite had a larger underlying message, but this one stood out to me as a common problem that we face today. Do you want to spend the rest of your adult life trying to recreate your youth or do you want to create new, happy memories as you step forward into the future? It should be obvious where I stand. 
*Asides*
Here are some guest posts I’ve made on other notable blogs. Check them out and comment if you like.
How to Do the Utterly Impossible @ Motivate Thyself
Is it Better to Single-Task or Multi-Task? @ PicktheBrain
———–
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, or Facebook. It’ll do the both of us a world of good.
credit: artmenko
Since my site focuses on living in the present moment, I do a lot of thinking about what it means to live in the now and how we can do it more often. Which means I LOVE this post. Of course Napoleon Dynamite is awesome in and of himself, but the points you’ve pulled out here are excellent. Very creative!
Thanks a lot for the encouragement, Dani! I’m happy you enjoyed the post. Napoleon Dynamite is a great movie and I loved writing about Uncle Rico.