YOU CANNOT MOVE FORWARD WHEN HOLDING ON TO WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN…

People tend to see things (and other individuals) as they are. We live “in the moment” during our daily lives. We deal with issues and situations as they come up. We resolve conflicts as they occur. We form our opinions and establish our perspectives based on what we see, hear or experience. A phrase originating during my misguided youth (“What you see is what you get!”) appropriately identifies the level of introspection many use to chart their path through life.

What if, rather than seeing “what is” we were to focus more upon “what could be?”  What if we stopped seeing individuals “as they are,” instead seeing them as “who might they become?”  If we assume that today’s reality is but a temporary bump in the road to an as yet undetermined future RATHER THAN a destination – that it is but an indicator of what is to become RATHER THAN a shelter in which we were meant to live – how much more could be accomplished in our lives? Every day that we are given can be either one more step along the path we have travelled or a new beginning to what might come next if only we opened our eyes, our minds and our hearts to accept the potential for change. When we see things only as they are…as they have always been…without want, reason or need for change, we diminish the possibility that they could ever be different. When we see opportunity and potential – a chance to begin anew each day rather than to maintain the status quo with our choices and our decisions – we allow ourselves to experience what we once might have only imagined (but never thought possible).

Whenever we focus upon fixing “what is” rather than reaching for “what could be” we tend to react rather than plan. We seek to make situations “go away” rather than trying to identify their root causes and changing the factors that combined to create what needs to be modified, worrying more about today (and the pain it might cause) than we do about tomorrow (and the potential it might hold). When we focus on the obvious reality of the moments in which we live we cannot think about what created the situation in which we find ourselves nor do we have the time (or the energy) to consider how our “present” could be changed to alter the path or direction of our future. When dealing with individuals we often see who a person is (because of what they did or the way they acted) but rarely focus on what they COULD BE (based on their experience, values and potential). When we shut someone out because of who they were in the past – removing from them an opportunity to change and grow – do they lose more (due to a loss of opportunity to individually change) or do we lose more (because we lost the opportunity to help make a difference in their life and the lives of all those they touch)?

Refuse to believe that “what you see is what you get.”  Today sets the stage for tomorrow – serving as a precursor of what could potentially become your new reality. What you have been and who you currently are may be influencing factors that help to determine who you might become BUT should never be viewed as excuses for keeping one from becoming all he or she was meant to be. Today identifies those things that have not yet been brought to fruition – the things that fade quickly into yesterday as we focus upon tomorrow. Live in “today” only long enough to move towards “tomorrow.”  You will be surprised how quickly “the moment” will pass if you live life seeking NOT “what is” but rather “what could be.”