Time for a change of pace. Over the next several blog posts I’m going to offer you some reflections, proverbs, and stories: wisdom I’ve gained from fifty-three years of living. If I knew twenty-five years ago what I’m sharing with you today, my life would have been a whole lot easier. Then again, it has been through living the ups and downs of my life that I discovered the “horse sense” I’ll be offering you over the next several weeks. I invite you to join me on the journey I’ve taken toward wholeness and listen to what I’ve been learning along the way.

Your past is not your future! Why should you believe me? What do I know about your past and your future?

Well, honestly, I don’t now anything about your past or future. But I’ve learned some lessons from my own past that I believe will help you move on from your past if you are stuck in it.

Stubbornness, anger, unforgiveness, pain, shame, purposelessness, and fear keep us stuck in the past. I know, they kept me stuck in my past for about 46 years. That’s a long time to be stuck.

One day I realized I could not change my past but I did not have to be stuck in it for the rest of my life. I realized that my past is not my future. That gave me hope. I want to share that hope with you.

You don’t have to wallow in the pain of your past. You don’t have to be held captive by your mistakes, failures, humiliations, or transgressions. You have the power to change the direction of your life. That power comes from the choices you make from this moment forward.

You can’t change the past, but you don’t have to replay it in your mind over and over or repeat it in your behavior again and again.. Author, Stephen Covey, encourages us to “live out of our imagination, not our history.”

You can imagine a different future for yourself, a future that is unlike your past. Once you imagine a different future you have the power to choose it or lose it.

Whatever your past was like, it’s not your future if you choose to live out of your imagination, not your history.

So how do you begin to imagine a different future? How do you begin to live out of your imagination, not your history? How do you make sure that your past does not become your future?

Your past is not your future if you understand that you can’t solve your problems with the same old thinking.

Next time: “You Can’t Solve Your Problems with the Same Old Thinking.”