As we prepare to launch the new year, I am reminded of Marcus Aurelius' words: "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." Revisiting the past is only valuable if it gives us hope for the future. Otherwise, that which is behind us will seek to either entangle us in sentimentality or bind our present and future with bitterness and excuses.
Let us remember the past as lessons learned. George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I would add, "Those that linger in the past are condemned to languish with it." That which is behind us must be made subservient to our plans for the future or our future will be subservient to our past.
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