Hindsight Is Rarely 20-20 - Grasshopper

Hindsight is foggy, made opaque by a memory that’s tinted with rose-colored “specks.”

The specks in our vision prevent us from seeing the whole picture. The good old days are really good old moments that are memorable. They stand out because of their specialness but don’t represent the whole.

 

When we look back, we mainly see the highlights and attempt to cast their hue on our entire catalog of memories. That causes our present to seem pale by comparison.

 

Your life situation may have changed since then but your access to your life force is the same as it has always been.

 

The raw material that makes life’s memorable moments is just as available to you now as it was then. It’s the life force that we all have access to that can build new moments that are worth remembering. We just have to remember that we have it.

 

Take a moment right now to confirm your life force. Just notice the sensations going on in your hands. Before I suggested your attention go there, you may have been unaware of that life force in your hands. It’s in every part of your body. It’s there all the time waiting to be channeled into making more memories worth looking back on.

 

What keeps us from channeling this life force into what we do is ignoring the moment we are in. When we look forward or look back, we lose touch with the force that makes things happen now.

 

Let’s pretend you are having a phone conversation with someone but thinking the whole time that you have something more important to do. The person on the other end is not getting the benefit of your attention nor are you tuned into what’s going on right now. This prevents your life force from entering the conversation as you ignore it while mentally escaping to an imagined future. Want to access your life force in this situation? Be in the conversation or end it.

 

Your life force can only be accessed now. You can’t tap into it in the past or in the future, only now.

 

Be aware of your life force and let it infuse everything you do by staying present to what’s going on right now.

 

You suck the life force out of your present by pretending it was more available in the past or that it will be more abundant in the future.

 

Notice the memories that stand out. They were moments you were present for which your life force easily flowed into.

 

Quoting Eckhart Tolle, “Your true evolution is not what you do out there. That’s secondary. Your true evolution is to do with the arising of awareness in you as you go about your life.”

 

Bottom line: Want to make legitimate 20-20 memories? Pay more attention to the moment you’re in now.

 

All the best,

John