What are You Tripping Over?
David Freund

Have you ever wondered why you’re not making the progress you’d hoped for? Do you feel stuck? Are there opportunities or goals you’re simply unwilling to pursue?

During my daily reflection this past week, I came across a question that stopped me in my tracks:

“Are you tripping over things in your past?”

For years, I believed certain experiences in my past disqualified me from future opportunities. Mistakes I made that I should have known better than to make, but made anyway. Times when I thought I knew more than I did. Times when I convinced myself I didn’t need support or help to accomplish something.

Those experiences are part of my story. But the question I continually ask myself is this:

Am I still tripping over things that I’ve already grown beyond?

Our past is just that — the past. It wasn’t as good or as bad as we often remember it. Yet it was essential in shaping who we are today. Our experiences can become some of our greatest teachers, but they can also become the chains that keep us from moving forward if we refuse to let them go.

Here are three ideas that can help us move beyond the past.

Reflect: Take some time to honestly reflect on what’s really going on in your life. Are you still tripping over something that happened years ago? Maybe it was a failure you experienced, a broken relationship, or the loss of a job.

Until we address whatever happened in our past, it can become like a tiny splinter buried just beneath the surface of a finger. We can’t see it, and we often forget it’s there. Then one day, we bump that finger in just the right way, and the pain comes rushing back.

That’s what unresolved experiences do. They continue to trip us up when we least expect it.

Share It: Another important step toward healing is sharing your awareness with someone you trust. Talk through your experience and invite their perspective.

Often, simply talking about it shines a light on the situation. We realize it wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as we had convinced ourselves it was. Or we discover that with a few adjustments, we can avoid making the same mistake again. Healing often begins with a conversation.

Leverage the Learning: Failure is only a failure if we refuse to learn from it.

We must decide not to repeat yesterday’s mistakes tomorrow. One of my favorite philosophies is to fail fast, learn faster, and move forward.

A simple framework for doing that is:

• Try
• Fail
• Learn
• Improve
• Re-enter

Too many people stop after the first two steps. They try, they fail, and then they quit. They never reach the learning, improving, and re-entering stages because they remain stuck, tripping over the past.

The key to lasting success isn’t avoiding failure. The key is learning from it, improving because of it, and having the courage to step back into the arena.

Remember this: You can always go from failure to success, but you’ll never go from excuses to success. Don’t let yesterday become the obstacle that keeps you from tomorrow. Learn from it, grow beyond it, and keep moving forward.