You may have once or more times in your life stumble upon this quote, “The Past is history, the Future is a mystery but Today is a gift. That is why it is called Present.”

Back in the day I used get this quote a lot, just ramdomly appeared on my social media profiles. Oddly enough these days I don’t see it. So when I used to see this quote in the beginning, it made me happy, tried to show me the brighter side of life. It taught me how I should stop thinking about what happened yesterday and stop stressing about what will happen tommorow. And live in today more specifically in the Present moment. When I was a teenager I felt that this quote was absolutely right. I mean why worry about things that has already happened or about to happen. I don’t have any control over them. Also I don’t have Doraemon‘s time machine that I can use to change my Past or to know my Future.

Flaw in the above quote:

But now that I am an adult, when I closely observe this quote I find couple of flaws in it. It is positive no doubt about that, and those who are fed up with life, this quote can cheer them to a certain degree. Works as a good motivation for those looking for it. But lets be honest the world is not a fairy land, it is not all bright sunshine and colourful rainbows. In truth the world is burning and we have to spend our entire lives in it knowing this harsh reality. Denying it and feeling “I am fine” with quotes like this won’t help us. Because there will come a time in all of our lives when we will have to face the world without any support or motivation.

Other major flaw is associated with our mind, it is constantly processing information, comparing the present scenarios with the past and based on these calculations predicting the future outcomes. So only focusing on the present moment is possible but for a short while. But the moment we loose focus our mind will start to do its job. And honestly we should let it, afterall this is how we survive through life.

Why looking back is important?

Now let’s come to the main topic why looking back into the Past is important. To summarize it, our Past build us, who we are today is a nothing but a product of our past. Our mindset, our personality, our behaviour, all of them are designed by our Past. So in order to deeply understand our traits, we need to look back.

Reasons to look back-

1. Cherishing Old Memories:

We can look back to cherish old memories. I mean we all have some beautiful old memories, that we want to live again and agin. I personally have a couple of them like….. waking up in the moring in my childhood home where I grew up. Watching Doraemon in the afternoon and when I look through the window I see the bright sunlight falling onto the open field. Having fun with my cousins, laughing, speaking without thinking about the consequences of my words (speaking my mind without holding back anything). Spending another day with the person I love, sitting at a cafe talking about various things etc. I sure you have some memories too that you want to live again. Because sometimes at that particular moment we don’t realize how important they are, only later we realize. But by then they just become Memories.

2. Not to Repeat Past Mistakes:

Another reason to look back is to learn from our past mistakes that we made. In a particular situation no matter how much calculative decision you take, sometimes you make mistakes or take the wrong decision. And you realize it later in life that you made a wrong judgement or simply made a mistake. At that moment all you have is regreat. It is hard to live with that regreat but remembering that regreat is important so that in fututre if we have to face a similar situation like that we handle it differently.

Plus from my personal experience I can say it works as a great motivation. And I truly come to believe that we evolve with our mistakes, because when you are right the world will treat you right but the moment you make single mistake, it will show you its ugly side, which is good for our personal growth. That is how we transform from a kid to an adult.

3. Journal of Our Success & Failure:

Lastly it is a journal of our successes and failures. In various stages to our lives we need to go through this journal because not always you will have someone to support you. In fact even in the room full of people you might feel alone, so you have to keep youself together. When you are succeeding in your life in order to keep yourself grounded you need to recall your failures. Which will tell you that you are not perfect, you make mistakes too. And on the flip side during the time of failure, you need to remind yourself the things that you have achieved until now (your success stories), so that you can keep moving during the time of failure.

Conclusion:

I want to conclude by saying if our past wasn’t important then there wouldn’t be a subject called “History”. And so many people wouldn’t dedicate their life learning about it. From our past we learn how we were and how we came to be. It is the pillar upon which we are standing, when you will feel like past is not important, ask yourself this question. “If I lost all the memories till yesterday. how would I know Who am I?”. And one of the common traits among us, which is judging others how do you think we do that, we do that based on our PAST experiences.