Twenty Years Ago

Where were you and what was your life like twenty years ago? (ten if you're under 30, five if you're under 20 - you get the idea.) Perhaps more importantly, what were you like then and what are you like now in comparison?

It's doubtful that you are the same. If you are, maybe you need to examine why. Is it because you were perfect then and your life has been static since you see no need for anything to be different? Or more likely, have you buried yourself and your life in concrete, an attempt to avoid scary change - better the devil you know than the one you don't -kind of thing.

Change is usually painful. Most people don't change for positive reasons, because they want to, but because the pain of changing has become less than the pain of maintaining things the way they are. -And sometimes they have no choice in that. Many things in our lives are beyond our control, so if someone or something else changes and it has a huge negative impact on our lives, maintining the status quo becomes more painful than the frightening idea of changing ourselves and our lives.

So looking back, not to beat ourselves up but simply to recognize where we were at back then and what changes we've gone through since. Visiting the past is worthwhile - living in it isn't.