What's wrong with the rear view mirror?

Don't look back - a common theme on Facebook these days.   Pictures, posts, quotes all saying to never look in the rear view mirror, ignore the past, its gone.  While that's true - you can't go back, nothing can be undone - there is a lot to be learned from what's behind you.  The past is a great teacher - the holder of hopes and dreams, things you swore you would never do, the person you intended to be.

You hate your job?  Every day?  You would prefer to be hit by a falling asteroid than go back?  Time to look back and remember when you liked going to work.  Think about the work you wanted to do way back when or what you want to do now.  Then leave.  I realize that is easier said than done - over priced college degrees, a bad economy, obligations in life - you know the things that prevent all of us in the wrong place from walking in Monday morning and quitting?   They aren't going away.   But there comes a time you need to make the leap.  It won't be easy, but it will be worth it.   30 more years of your soul dying in a place you hate won't be easy either.  Make the plan.  Take the leap.

To all of you that complain about your diets, your workouts, your cardio, how it interferes with your life, how you have no life, why do you do it?   If you hate whatever it is you do that much, why keep going?   To keep friends?  Make someone else happy?   Don't tell me it is for yourself, I don't drink Kool Aid or buy bullshit.   Because its not.  If you were doing it for you, there would not be all this bitching.   If you loved it, you would embrace the entire experience, not just the pleasant parts.  Take a look back - why did you start?  And should you really keep going?

Think about your "friends" and how they got there.  Social media is a life sucker - so many people shoving their way into your day that without it would never have gotten a second of your time.  What does each and every person add to your life?  Positive energy?  Encouragement?  Friendly debate?  Or drama?  I've always kept my circle small and somehow it grew - easy enough to shrink it back to those that I value - hide/delete/block are amazing functions.  Too bad they can't be used in person.  This goes for other "influencers" too.   If the magazine/blog/tv show/website doesn't add quality to your life, get rid of it.  Constant stimulus isn't necessarily a good thing.   Remember all those studies about young girls and waif-like models?  They apply to anything and everything you surround yourself with.

The two scariest places to look are not the closet and under the bed but the past and into yourself.   No one sets out in life to be miserable - there was a time you were happy.  Everything has not always been wrong.   There are things you loved.  Bring them back.   I've done a lot of that looking lately as I have that job and wish for that asteroid.  No, I can't go back, listen to my gut and run from the offer.  I can't go back to 19 and major in what I loved versus what made sense (because other people said so, and yea, they were right, I'm pretty damn employable, if not happy in my field).  But there are things I can change.  I lift for the love of it again and amazingly my diet has fallen right in line.  Proper motivation = proper action.  I got followed around Kohl's by security today - seems my fauxhawk and Flag Nor Fail tank were very suspicious.  Yes, when I was done giggling over the memory of that happening 20 some years ago with my good friend from high school I put the not so undercover idiot right back in his place - but it did point out I was doing something right.  I no longer blended in.  I don't even know how that happened.  But it won't happen again.

My plane/pool reading for the trip to Florida?  Revolver, Psychology Today, Ironman and Vogue.   Exactly what it should be.