Looking Back To Move Forward

 

The words hung in the air like the white smoke trailing from a skywriter. The irony was not lost on me. I'd spent the last 48 hours of every breath I had only looking back over memories of my mother because I couldn't imagine what I was trying to avoid, living without her.

 

A lovely high school classmate said this to me when we ran into one another at a hometown diner, after two grueling days with my mother who was coming in and out of life because of multiple organ failure. I wasn't quit sure if he was saying it with a gist of reverence or sorrow. 

 

It was one of those universal moments where I trusted the words were put in front of me for a reason, like an angel whispering a sacred message that I needed to decipher. In that moment I had little capacity to hold on to it's lingering mystery so I tucked it away for another day. 

 

And here it is, "another day". 

Over a decade later - this is the day it sprung to my consciousness.🤷‍♀️

 

Not that it hasn't popped up here and there. But today, sitting down to create my business strategy for 2025, his unassuming words rivetted through my recall and right into an introspective excavation of truth. 

 

Is it true? If so, what am I making this decade-old comment mean?

What was this rumination all about. 

Why are the words revisiting my mind?

 

My mind went into a spin of contemplation, how do you move forward if you are looking back, literally or metaphorically? How do you navigate if you're only looking in your rear view mirror?

 

And WHY in this moment can I not get his sweet, jarring tone out of my head? I wonder if he's thought twice about it. 

How many words have you said to another person who pushed them to the back of their sub-conscious closet, peeking in once and awhile to see how they fit (that's another convo all together). 🤔

 

So, I decided it was time to unpack this sacred message and decipher what the angel tapping on my sub-conscious shoulder was saying.

 

I dove in. 

I pilfered through the major changes I initiated throughout my life - and some that were initiated without choice. 

A pattern began to emerge. 

 

I do look back.😲  

I look back before I move forward.

I look back to get clear on what I want to take forward, what I leave behind and what I want to create in this moment to get to where I want to be. 

 

I've developed a protocol, one that began to form before I even knew to call it a protocol. What worked or didn't work doesn't define me but it guides me on where I want to go and how I want to get there. 

My change protocol has evolved into…

 

Decide what it is you want.

Know what's on the road ahead that will try and stop you. Be prepared.

Create a plan and take action.

Spend enough time on what didn't work to help define what will ultimately work for you - then let it go.

Decide what you'll do differently and take action because that's what keeps you on track to move forward.

Own the consequences and results of what you create. It's all yours and that makes it uniquely magical.

Own who you are, in what ever version you are in - let go of what others need you to be because you are enough.

 

I'm confident when I knew my classmate back in the day my approach had a little more bluntness, rough edges, (and not the Steve McQueen rocked out kind of edge💕), mixed with bouts of fear and angst. My heart was in the right place - always moved toward a better version of myself, how to live a purpose I hadn't yet understood, and define a life of peace I hadn't quite found. It took intention to move from surviving mode to my present day spiritual, thriving mode and looking back helped me see that. 

 

So, turns out, I do look back to move forward. 

AND at the same time…I don't look back once I make up my mind unless there's something, like this one simple observation from a distant acquaintance, that keeps me on the path to where I want to go - forward. 

 

Taking the time to listen to this sweet angelic message from the middle of one of the most disoriented moments of my life has given me inspiration and evidence to take 2025 to the edge. 

 

To see how much change I can create in my business that will keep me moving forward when I look back on what an incredible year 2025 will be.