“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr
Every year seems to go by in a rush. Irrespective of the nature of events and occurrences during the year – the line that most of us would use (hopefully sitting at a lovely beach shack) on the 31st of December, is ‘God…last year just flew by’.
The beauty of dates is that they often lead most of us to introspect in some way or the other. As humans, we are thinking all the time. But dates like New Years, Birthdays and Anniversaries lead us to think deeper & introspect. But is thinking about the past and future helpful? I guess it is. But what’s more important is HOW we go about the ‘thinking about our past’. That’s where the difference could lie in what happens subsequent to the introspection on these important dates.
Looking Back as Individuals
As individuals, irrespective of where we stand today – there is always room for a better future. But when we look back, we often look at events in our life and blame those events for the way we turned out. For Example: I had a torrid child hood. My Parents fought all the time. There was no peace in the house, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, all of these occurrences have a huge bearing on how we turn out – but my point is looking back and placing blame on them is not going to be of any use. The truth is nobody really knows why we or life turns out a certain way. Nobody knows why one woman gets raped as a child and then grows up to become the richest and 1 of the most powerful woman in entertainment [Oprah Winfrey] OR why some others spend the rest of their life wallowing in the sorrow of their past. But citing something that has happened in the past as a reason for something not going right today – is just a waste of your time. Let that thought not cross your mind.
Stop looking at stuff like that. Concentrate only on the events in the past that were under your control and where you screwed up. Like not studying hard for that 12th standard exam when you could have. That was totally under your control. Nobody could have stopped you from studying more. But you didn’t. Take your lesson from that. Take 100% responsibility for it. And use that learning in the future to give your 100% to whatever you are doing or then don’t do it at all [that was my learning from doing badly at exams as a student].
Looking back from the point of view of Business
For every business, based on certain analysis (some detailed, some based more on intuition), decisions are made which seem right at that point. But some of these decisions go wrong. The success of a Business also depends on the outside world. The external world. You do business only when a customer [external party] buys something from you. Hence, you are going to have factors like recession/downturn, key people quitting, competition introducing predatory pricing, etc. happening to your business.
So when you look back at business, take 100% responsibility for everything that happens – whether you believe it’s because of an external force or internal – cause it really doesn’t matter. Both factors would be responsible for the success or downfall of a business.
So whether it’s about your own self or your business, look back. But look back only if it’s going to help you make a better future. Cause the future is the only thing we can change – based on how we look back at our past and act in the present. So, Happy Looking Back and have a great New Year!