Personally, I don’t believe it’s healthy for our mental and emotional well-being to spend too much time living in the past.

We constantly make the mistake of blaming ourselves for things we think we should have started when we were younger. The examples are endless. I should have started living on my own earlier. I should have waited a little longer before starting a family. I should have gotten my finances in order sooner. I should have started eating healthier and exercising earlier. I should have given up alcohol, promiscuity, nightlife, or some other vice or addictive habit long ago.

But what is the point of repeating these thoughts over and over again if the most important thing is that we have already begun to change?

It doesn’t matter how late we start bringing order to our lives. The most important step has already been taken: the decision to change.

Rather than asking ourselves regretful questions, the phrase we should tell ourselves every day is:

“It has been ___ days since I started…”

And I haven’t missed a single day.

That is the kind of motivation we truly need.

The past no longer exists, and neither does the future. All we really have is the dawn that arrives each day. With gratitude, we should rise from bed and say:

“Thank you for one more day since I started…”