FitnessFor.Us

· 2 min read

You Can't Change Yesterday

General

It seems as if so many of us spend a lot of time thinking about the past. We dwell regretfully on missed opportunities. We reminisce and wonder how things "might have been". We sometimes bask in the glow of bygone successes -- which wreaks its own brand of psychological havoc -- but most of us, I think, are more like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite, wondering how things might have been ... if only....

Uncle RicoThe majority of that reminiscing is wasted time, I believe, but I'll admit that looking back at the past can be constructive.

You've probably heard some version of George Santayana's "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Remembering my own history sure does keep me motivated not to repeat it.

  • I never want to drink like that again.
  • I never want to eat like that again.
  • I never want to sit around doing nothing like that again.

I have no regrets, though, for the stupid things I've done. I consider regrets to be silly and yet one more waste of time. Why?

YOU CAN"T CHANGE YESTERDAY.

(Not yet, anyway. Scientists are working on this issue as we speak. If they are still funded, that is....)

I just don't believe in giving more than a cannot-be-helped passing thought to things I wish I'd done. That kind of thinking is not productive.

  • What if I'd never had that first cigarette?
  • What if I'd stayed in the Air Force 10 more years?
  • What if I'd bought Apple at $20/share back when they were sitting on $14/share in cash?

Every decision I've made -- good or bad -- has helped shape my life, and has, in fact, set my life on a course that is necessarily quite different than the road not taken.

After all, if I'd never let myself get fat, would I have ever been encouraged to get fit?

Speaking of that, somebody asked me the other day what keeps me motivated to stay on course with fitness and healthy eating, and I said, without hesitation, "I can't go back to what I was."

So, no, we can't change yesterday. But we can change today. That's all we can hope to do, for now, so what's stopping you?

Related reading

  1. · General

    Remember when we had to remember things?

    I woke this morning, and, as always, I looked at the clock. It displayed the correct time. That is not so astonishing, because the primary purpose of a clock is to display the correct time. But, wait, daylight…

  2. · Pandemic, Joy

    The wonders of a simple bidet

    Who'd have guessed back in March that one of the best things to come out of this covidcrisis would be my discovery of the wonders of a bidet? Remember how there was a wild run on toilet paper…

  3. · Zoom, General

    Zooming with confidence

    It's a way of life these days. I'm on Zoom. A lot. I take meetings. I attend classes. I perform improvisational theatre. It's all via Zoom. I learned early on, by observing how my zoommates sounded and looked,…