I love car analogies. Driving is something we all do on a daily basis and can easily relate to. The way I see it, driving your car is just like living your life…
So, let’s imagine for a minute that you are driving your car. I want you to compare for me the size of your windscreen to that of your rear-vision-mirror. The windscreen is huge compared to the mirror, right? And for very good reason; whilst driving you spend the large majority of the time looking ahead and only a fraction of the time looking back.
Furthermore, there is so much more you need to look at and be aware of ahead of you, but not so much for what’s behind you. Imagine what would happen if you spent most of your time looking at what was behind you in a the rear-vision-mirror and only occasionally and briefly glanced forward through the windscreen? You’d crash and burn pretty quickly! Hopefully you can see the similarity between the way you drive your car and how you should live your life.
So often we spend far too long looking in the rear-vision-mirror at the things that have passed us by in life rather than looking at and focusing on what lies ahead of us. Yes, we’ve all been through trials and tribulations in the past, but it’s exactly that – the past. It’s not going to be of any help if you keep looking backwards while you are trying to move forward in life.
Increase the size of your mind’s windscreen and keep your eyes focused on what’s ahead of you. That way you’ll be more responsive to opportunities and directions that you need to take in order to get to where you want in life.
You mind’s rear-vision-mirror is good for only one thing: reflecting. Briefly reflect on what has been and gone in this year, learn from it, but then get your eyes squarely locked back on the road ahead for the following year.