Living in the Past vs Documenting Your Life: Know the Difference

Ever wonder if documenting your life means you’re stuck in the past? Nope. It’s actually a way of processing big life events in an incredibly healthy way, and it can prevent you from being stuck in the past and allow you to move forward.

Let’s dive into this a little more.

A big life event (have a baby, break up with your significant other, lose your job, or move somewhere new) is often when you can find someone living in the past, or documenting their way through it. One is past (duh), the other is future. One is suspended, the other is moving forward.

How do you know you’re stuck in the past?
You start replaying old versions of yourself in your head. You compare your energy, body, ambition, and confidence to who you used to be. These thoughts stay in your head, never on paper, so they are unstructured. You’re using the past as a measuring stick instead of a reference point.

You’re telling yourself things like, “I used to be more driven.” or “I’ve fallen behind.” or “That version of me mattered more.”

Suddenly you realize that you hesitate just about every time you go to start something new. You have constant guilt for wanting more. You’re afraid to document your life because it feels like you’re admitting failure. The past becomes a standard you can’t meet and growth feels disloyal to who you once were.

But what if you chose to own your past instead of questioning it?
This means you’re thinking of the past in terms of facts. This happened. This changed me. Here’s what it cost me. Here’s what it gave me. This is what I’m carrying forward with me, the rest I’m leaving in the past. You’re taking ownership instead of interrogating yourself, and documentation is leading the way.

There’s something very important to add here: Just because you’re taking ownership of your past doesn’t mean you like it. You’re not choosing a happy ending, you’re choosing a clear one. You are turning a corner and moving forward.

The clarity you’re giving yourself now is freeing your ambition, desire, confidence, and putting you into forward motion because you’re no longer asking yourself who might have I been? Instead, you’re asking who am I now, with everything that I’ve lived?

And just like that you’ve taken authority over your own story.

See you!
Amy