Everyone Has A Past

Life isn't easy...

Everyone struggles. Everyone hurts. Everyone has something in their past that could render them incapable of living a normal, healthy, functioning life.

The girl at the coffee shop this morning, the one with the cute shoes and gorgeous hair? She could have spent her teenage years struggling with an eating disoder.

The jerk who cut you off in traffic? He might have had an absent father or alcoholic mom.

The President of the United States did.

I don't see it stopping him. I don't see him blaming his failures on his messed up childhood.

The only difference between people who succeed and people who fail is that the people who succeed chose to overcome to crap in their past, while the ones that fail chose to let it define them.

Period.

Everyone has crap. Anyone can give you a sob story.

Some people choose to dwell in their crap. They live mediocre or lower lives and blame everyone else for their failures. Their past is their excuse for their failed present. Their mistakes are never theirs. They have someone to blame for everything that goes wrong. And for the most part - they are miserable.

Other people know that they have hurts and hangups from a messed up past. But they figure out how to deal with it and let it go. They vow to overcome their past and make a better future for themselves and the generations that will follow. These people are the ones that run our country, become the heads of companies, and, probably most importantly, raise well adjusted, healthy children.

I think all of us have the potential to be either of these kinds of people. And, sometimes, we are going to be both.

I want to be the kind of person that overcomes and succeeds. I want to let go of my past and look forward to a bright future. I had one hell of a childhood - but I want to find a way to let it go.

What about you? What kind of person are you going to be?