A beloved friend, mentor and colleague once said to me: “Gail, nothing substitutes for the passage of time.” Her words ring truer to me today than ever before.
Foresight’s roots go deep into the ground of hindsight. Looking back and reviewing situations in your life gives you the opportunity to predict what may happen in the future. When you recognize patterns, you have more choices about whether you want to repeat them, or not.
We do see more clearly looking back at a situation. We have more depth and breadth and a deeper understanding about how and why something happened and how it shaped us both for good and not-so-good.
I used to think of the phrase “Hindsight is 20/20” as one-dimensional. As I have grown older, I see many dimensions to this saying. Hindsight is the distance we need in order to have full visual acuity. In hindsight we also see a situation in a larger context and from a different angle. Hindsight is re-visioning.
Our past doesn’t have to limit our future. When we look back at situations that went poorly, we can clearly see what could have been done better.
- Here is what hindsight can teach us:
- The ability to start over
- To reach for new experiences
- To not let the past take over the future
- Flexibility
- To understand ourselves
- To understand other people
- To have choices
There are no simple answers to the difficult and complex challenges of life, and relationships. Yet, looking back can bring us insight by helping us see how we handled a situation in the past and how we may be able to use some of those experiences in our present and future.
Reflection: If I give myself the time and space to review a situation, I may make better choices.
Today’s Practice: Next time there is a problem to be solved, I’ll put it on the back burner of my mind until I have more clarity of vision.