Are You Living Life Looking Forward or Backward?

 Do you ever ask friends or family what they are looking for or expecting from life? Mostly we reserve these questions for children growing to adulthood or first time encounters with people. Otherwise we assume we know the answer. You may be surprised by what others are expecting from life, even you.

Many people set goals and carefully make plans to reach them while others goals have long since departed from their consciousness. Complacency allows us to just take life as it comes, celebrate some things and bemoan the things we would rather have avoided. It's human nature to do this. Still, even if you never set a goal, you are heading somewhere! Is it an accident, those places you find yourself as you wonder through life? The truth is you mapped the course and followed it; hence your arrival at your own today.

We exist in a wide expansive world, aware but not really imagining that it matters to us beyond the lane we choose to travel in. Like any careful driver on the road who commands the direction, detours and exits on a journey all of us are commanding our future. We are the driving force in our own life; where are you going, do you know? It's easier than you imagine for anyone to determine their destination.

Just like any driver on the road you are destined to arrive at the place you have focused intently on. Are your conversations mostly about how things used to be, about people who were in your life or the pain or joy they created in your memories? Do you believe you are in a no- win situation where misery is a frequent companion, where maybe life has even taken you to a place where you require the anesthesia of some kind of substance to get through it? Does life mostly feel like a hopeless rerun with little or nothing to excite you about tomorrow? If so, you have chosen to take the exit ramp at 'Barely Get Along Street.' It is a hopeless, hapless place where people park their dreams permanently. They get along with barely any emotions save anger and bitterness, never realizing how much energy is required to fuel despair. All of theirs is allocated to keeping that fire of remorse burning. Their life is being lived looking through the rear view mirror, a much smaller view of the opportunities they are passing. They can barely see anything at all except what is behind them. This is living life looking backwards, believing the very best has come and gone; and so you stare at what was with no faith in what can be.

The other option is so much more exhilarating and fulfilling. When you are always looking forward you rarely miss an opportunity. You can be fearless as you imagine what can be, must be around the next curve or turn. You are free to embrace life, to dream and imagine that this dream or something better will absolutely be your reality. Your life is filled with hope, joy and the faith that the very best can and will be. You understand that what appears to be a setback is intended to guide you to the right turn you just passed, a detour to return you to the path that will take you where you were really going. The pain of losing someone in life is encircled by the warm memories of what was shared together. Losses are not less painful, they are just not crippling because you have enough faith to accept what you cannot change. Life is bigger than you. This is a life lived looking excitedly through the wide expansive windshield where you enjoy the passing scenery, are aware of the vast possibilities and pay attention to your own inner voice that guides you to a place where possibilities become probabilities. It is not happenstance that you are heading to a place you were always hoping to go; it is the expected result of based on what you were focusing on. This is living life looking forward.

You don't necessarily need to plan the steps to get to a desired destination, or even narrow down the probabilities. This common practice limits your own higher consciousness, much like choosing a limited menu at the best restaurant. Leaving the details out allows far more possibilities to emerge. Dare to look forward and know that all that you can see is a small sample of what can really be.