Why Looking Backwards Will Help You To Go Forwards

I have a habit of looking forwards into the future and trying to map it out in my mind.

The problem is, whenever I do this, the result never matches the vision I created in my mind.

Despite this result repeating itself over and over, I’m still prone to lapse into this habit from time to time.

It’s counter-productive, but trying to plan the future is futile. Circumstances change and reality is different to how you imagine it.

What I have realised is that looking backward is much more beneficial than looking to the future.

By looking at where I have come from, I can see how far I have improved and use that realisation to move myself forwards.

It may sound stupid but looking to the past, and using that as a barometer to measure success, has helped me a lot recently.

Whenever I have been down about not reaching a goal, I look backwards, realise how far I have come and recalibrate my mind.

It sounds simple, but it works wonders!

Looking Back

I have been looking back a lot recently.

I know it’s common to hear that looking to the past isn’t good for you, and that comment has a lot of weight.

If you’re looking back to the past, yearning to be a part of it again, that is not healthy.

However, there is another way to look back that is beneficial.

Looking back to see how far you have progressed is something we should all do more of.

I have been using this technique to see how far I have progressed on my path to self-employment.

At this point last year, my travel blog, was pulling in average numbers, and I was barely making any money from it.

In fact, I think June 2017 was the first time I made any money from my blog!

How times have changed.

My blog is now pulling in thousands of visitors a month, and I’m making a lot more money than last year.

I find it easy to get down about results, especially when do see what you expect to see.

It’s easy to get downhearted in this way.

But whenever, I do, I cast my mind back to the same point last year, and look back at where I was then.

By looking at how far you have come in a year, you can use that to ground yourself and realise you have made a lot of progress.

We are prone to thinking short-term, but by looking at improvements over the long-term, we can ground ourselves and set ourselves up for further growth down the road.

The Takeaway

The takeaway from this is quite simple.

By utilising the past, we can move forwards with purpose into the future.

If I take myself as an example, I can show how powerful a technique this is.

A year ago, I was barely making any headway with my blog, and had only just made some money from it.

Two years ago, I was struggling to attract 50 visitors a day to my blog, and making any money from it was a pipe dream.

While, three years ago, my blog had one been set up two months ago, and there were days when I wouldn’t get any visitors at all.

In three years, I have gone from a tiny Wordpress blog in an unnoticed corner of the internet, to a thriving and profitable travel blog.

If I frame things in this way, as opposed to becoming negative about events in the short-term, I realise just how much progress I have made in a short space of time.

My concerns in the present melt away, and I realise that I have achieved a lot. I use that as fuel to help me progress further in the future.

You can use this in any part of your life. Whether it’s transforming your body, how far you’ve progressed at work, or just how much better you feel than in the past, you can use it to give yourself more confidence in a number of areas.

Looking back at the past in this way, is one of the best tools we can use to help us overcome any malaise we feel in the present.

It’s not always wise to look back into the past, but if you do it in the right way, you will reap the benefits.

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