Sometimes You Have To Forget What’s Gone

photo – © lzf | Fotolia

“Sometimes you have to forget what’s gone
Appreciate what still remains
and
Look forward to what’s coming next”

This quote highlighted 3 important ingredients in life: moving on, living in the present, and setting goals.

According to experts, it takes a firm resolve and energy for a person to move on. Since humans are creatures of habit, letting go is a challenging feat. A team of scientists in Scotland revealed that although it is hard, it’s certainly not impossible. Their study discovered that forgiveness makes “intentional forgetting” so much easier than simply repressing emotions.

Living in the present is as important. A Harvard University study concluded that reminiscing is one of the major reasons for people’s misery. The same study also found that on average, people spend 46.7% of their time wandering in their heads, contributing to their unhappiness. To quote from their article released in the journal Science: “A human mind is a wandering mind and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”

While living in the present increases happiness, having goals for the future increases motivation. More importantly, writing down one’s goals increases the chances for success. This was proven by a study conducted to the 1979 Harvard MBA program: the 3% who reportedly wrote down their goals, earn ten times, on average, as much as the other 97% of their class combined.

Mike Rowe expressed his healthy perspective on life in his quote: “I’m looking forward to the future, and feeling grateful for the past.”