Line In the Sand

I made a lightning-quick trip to Los Angeles to give a talk earlier this week. The event was awesome, and the audience was tremendously engaging. In my closing remarks, I said out loud what most people were probably thinking. Every person in that room has made destructive and painful financial mistakes, whether they know it or not. It’s okay. That’s life. It happens. My plea to them was to give themselves grace. We can’t jump into a DeLorean and go back in time. The past is the past. The ONLY thing that matters is doing better today, tomorrow, and the next day. Every single mistake (financial or otherwise) they’ve made is a mere paragraph in their larger story. 

Regret, remorse, and guilt are inevitable human feelings. None of us can fully escape them. However, each of us can decide what to do with them. If we dwell on it, we will perpetually prevent ourselves from doing better in the future. We will fixate on the past, wallow in the pain it’s caused us, and continually beat ourselves up, wondering what could have been. The alternative, though, is to recognize what happened, learn from it, grow, and commit to doing better in the future. 

Every time I sit down with a new client, I ask them to draw a line in the sand. Where they are today is where they are…..period. Everything that’s happened in the past is in the past, and they are the author of what happens from today forward. People who can do this will thrive, while those who can’t will inevitably repeat history. 

Draw a line in the sand today. Whatever garbage is haunting you, financial or not, put it in the past. Today is a new day, and today is a great day to set a new course. A huge thanks to my friends in Los Angeles for hosting me,  and I couldn’t be more excited for that wonderful group of people I spent that evening with. This is where things get good!

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