Be Happy with How Far You’ve Come

To creators, doers, and entrepreneurs, you need to pause for a moment and look back.

I want to be real with you for a minute — there is so much I want out of my life on earth.

And I’m sure you do too.

I have dreams of building a sustainable impact-driven business, of becoming a published author and helping people succeed, of speaking multiple languages, of taking a summer to sail across the Mediterranean.

And I’m relentlessly working on realizing those dreams.

If you’re a creator, a doer, an artist or entrepreneur, you’re doing the exact same.

You keep pushing and putting more pressure on yourself to deliver — setting new goals and raising the bar of expectations year after year.

And sometimes, you crash — like I do

Many times, you fall down — like I do.

Once, I reached burnout — I hope you never do.

But in those moments, when you find yourself swept back into the shallow end of the dream pool, there is only one magic potion that can lift your spirits: looking back to reflect on how far you’ve come.

Humans forget.

And it’s normal that we do.

Our brains process so much information on any given day. We’re bombarded with over 5,000 ads per day. An average smartphone user receives 50 app notifications per day. Factor in the e-mails, the text messages, the tweets and all other micro-moments that distract our thinking and you begin to realize just how much information our mind juggles at any given moment.

So much happens so fast.

And within that viciously flowing stream, we’re always searching for more — and better.

More goals. Better habits.

More money. Better things.

More followers. Better content.

More revenues. Better strategies.

We’re always penning down new resolutions of all the things we’ll change next month, all the new habits we’ll build and all the goals we’ll accomplish.

We’re in a perpetual state of thinking, planning and bettering, that when we do fall or crash, or when things don’t go as expected, we would’ve already exerted too much energy that we find it hard to pick ourselves up and rise.

And this happens because we simply forget.

We forget who we were 10 years ago. We forget how far we’ve come since. We forget how much we’ve grown as a human and how much better we’ve become in understanding our role in this world.

You forget all the difficult times you’ve faced along your journey. All the little obstacles you ploughed through and emerged out of them stronger. All the risks you were so brave to take. How you’ve become so much better in managing your emotions, dealing with heartbreaks, working with people and growing your business.

We forget.

We’re so fixated on “more and better” that we fail to make a conscious effort to pause, look back, remember, appreciate and reflect.

Sometimes, a dose of reflection is much more rewarding to the mind and soul than a splash of planning.

So with the New Year inching closer by the day, and while everyone writes to tell you to set new goals for this new decade, to create better habits — how to read a book a week, how to reshape your body into the way you like or how to grow your newsletter list — I’m writing to ask you to do one simple thing:

Pause, look back, remember, reflect. Realize how far you’ve come and how much you’ve grown.

That’s it.

Ten years.

Who were you then? Who are you now?

Where were you then? Where are you now?

What are all the wonderful things you’ve done?

Whatever highs or lows you uncover, I promise you this:

You will feel more fulfilled. You will feel more powerful. More beautiful. More grateful. Much more empowered. You will feel light. You will feel happy. And you will come to understand just how far you’ve grown as a human.

For once, reflect more, plan less. And let remembrance — rather than new goals — be your fire to keep going.

Be happy with how far you’ve come.

Remember the incredible moments you’ve shared with the people you’ve loved. Remember how precious the gift of life is. Remember where you started.

Realize how you’ve transformed yourself. And how many times you’ve fallen only to rise back up and try again.

Slowly but surely, your reflective moment transforms into appreciation. You will beam with pride. With confidence. With fulfilment. You will realize the extent of growth you’ve experienced thus far into your journey, you’ll begin to appreciate yourself for where you stand today and you’ll become much more excited to see how far you can go.