Hi Friend
I’m grateful for this week. Our team was together quite a bit. Monica and I spoke at the same event, which was a blast. Sarah was with us too. John joined us two days later for a #ScrambledLunch in downtown OKC. We each bring stories from our family or personal lives that are interesting, challenging or entertaining. It’s nice to have each other!
I had my last long run for the half marathon, that I will be running when you wake up and read this. As I was prepping for the race, I opened the app. However, it was the “old” one. I had to download the new one for this year’s run. As I scrolled through the old one, I realized it had all of my previous races and even non OKC races.
I was surprised to see it had my New Year’s Eve run in Tulsa from two years ago. It had a turkey trot I had done in Edmond as well as one I did in Ohio in 2019. It had most of my OKC half and full marathons from the last decade. It had the only other half-marathon race I’ve run, which was in Ft. Worth. It was a nice stroll down marathon memory lane.
Have you ever been confronted with details from a blurry past? I came face-to-face with mine. Here was a record of what I’d done but had mostly forgotten. Thankfully, it was encouraging. My times were all over the place, but I could recall the races and prep (or lack thereof) that got me through each run.
POSITIVE PAST?
The “past” as an entity generally has a negative reputation. If people “live in the past” nothing good comes from it. People try to “bury the past” so they can live free of their previous choices. Others are encouraged to “let go of the past” because it’s somehow holding them back. Heck sometimes the “past catches up” with individuals and it’s never to return cash.
The tricky thing with the past is that when we do have positive experiences back there, it requires a humility, so we don’t perceive ourselves through that old lens. The glory days were glorious, they’re just not now. Or are they? 24 hours from when you’re reading this will transform now into the past. I like my yesterday. Yet we can’t remain there. Or can we?
LAYERING CONSISTENCY
Yesterday laid a fabulous foundation for today. My today would not be what it has been, if yesterday had not been what it was. Don’t even get me started on the day before yesterday! Today would have been half the day it was, without the day before yesterday. This is why the past still persists in the present. How fortunate or unfortunate for us, huh?
From morning routines to communication styles to following through on commitments to purposed dispositions; the more consistency-of-character we layer through each day that resembles the previous one, the greater strength and courage we have to attempt something original. Ironically those who are haunted by the past are inconsistent from day-to-day and way less likely to invent new realities.
Instigating Ideas…
1. How would you describe your relationship with your past?
2. Encourage someone who has broken free from their former days ways.
3. Share with someone something you’re proud of, and disappointed about, from your past.
4. Where are you layering consistency?
I’m excited about running. I love the environment and the 20+ thousand people who join me in the #RunToRemember. It’s been 29 years since the OKC Murrah Building bombing occurred. I still know exactly where I was at 9:02a on April 19th, 1995. When the past stamps one moment in time in our life, it’s always a sacred expression.
ENABLER
The design of time is a progressive enabler. You and I are meant to be elevated and propelled forward from the ongoings of our previous days, weeks and years. Too many grant their past the power to disable and incarcerate. There are genuine ways to break free, beyond TikTok remedies. (I just don’t have the space here).
How about you and I determine that the current past we are creating, will be an asset and resource, not just for us, but for others to be inspired to continue onward layering goodness. I’m committed to nurture a past from the present that acts as a trampoline into my future!
I hope this week you layer another advantage into your life by consistently deciding according to your values and priorities. Regret is inevitable when it comes to the past, but let’s not generate any with this weeks’ choices.