Our men's soccer team is welcoming a crew of new players to campus this year...and asking returning players to step up and replace a talented and passionate and successful graduating group...along with my every year welcome week I run for 400 new students at CU, it has caused me to think lots about helping folks to look to the future...here's some thoughts I read and shared with our soccer team this morning...
CU SOCCER 2013--Windshields and Rearview Mirrors:
Tim Elmore's Habitudes for the Journey
Everyone focuses on something—the past or the future. Where does your energy come from? When our dreams are bigger than our memories, we gain energy from the hope that lies ahead. Often, we must let go of the comfort from our past to make progress.
Rearview mirrors are good to glance at, but not to gaze at. Most of the time, it’s best to look straight ahead.
This Habitude is not simply about letting go of the past. It is important to sustain friendships we’ve made along the way. We should be grateful for fun memories and good times. Our past will always help shape our future. But sometimes, the past can hold us back. If our memories are more important than our dreams—we are in trouble. If we prefer to look in the rearview mirror instead of the windshield, we’ll get stuck—and maybe wreck. Holding on to the comfort of our past can keep us from grabbing the adventure that lies in our future.
Here’s a question for you: Where does your energy come from—the past or the future?
On your journey, can you peer out in front of you and become excited about the horizon? Can you gain more energy from the future than the past? Based on our qualitative research at Growing Leaders, the most common reasons students get “stuck in the past” are:
·
They are victims of time. They can’t seem to break free of
old patterns.
·
They are victims of relationships. They stay involved with
people who hold them back.
·
They are victims of comfort/nostalgia. They fear that
their best days are in the past.
1. Replace comfort with curiosity.
Choose to leave the comfortable to pursue the compelling. Hunt for new horizons to conquer.
2. Reject being a victim of your circumstances.
Don’t let anyone control your emotions or your response to life. It is your life, after all.
3. Renew your commitment to embrace opportunities.
Hang out with different people. Search for new challenges that will stretch you.
4. Relinquish the past and create new memories.
Perhaps it’s time to let go of the old trophies and ribbons and go earn some new ones.
***Philippians
3:12-14 (New International Version)
Not that I have already obtained all
this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take
hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and
sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I
do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press
on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.
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