DON'T LET REGRETS REPLACE YOUR DREAMS - JOHN MASON

IN THE LATTER PART of the nineteenth century, when the Methodist Church was holding its denominational convention, one leader stoop up and shared his vision both for the church and society at large. He told the ministers and evangelists how he believed that someday men will fly from place to place instead of merely traveling on horse back. It was a concept too outlandish for many members of his audience to handle. One minister, Bishop Wright, stood up and angrily protested. "Heresy!" he shouted "Flight is reserved for angels!" He went on to elaborate that if God had intended for man to fly, he would have given them wings. Clearly, the Bishop was unable to envision what the speaker was predicting. When Bishop Wright finished his brief protest, he gathered up his two sons, Orville and Wilbur, and he left the auditorium. That's right. His sons were Orville and Wilbur Wright. Several years later, on December 17, 1903, those two sons did what their father called impossible: they recorded the first human flight (four times) Yesterday ended last night. So today is more valuable to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret. A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. - John Barrymore


Regret looks back. Worry looks around. Vision looks up.
Life can be understood backward, but it must be lived forward. If past history were all that mattered, librarians would be the only successful people in the world.
The past should only be viewed with gratitude for the good things. So look backward with gratitude and look forward with confidence. Your pay is the stay of your fresh start. 
Consider what Vivian Laramore Rader said : "I've shut the door of yesterday and throw the key away-tomorrow holds no fears for me, since I've found today." Use the past as a launching pad not a lawn chair. Dreams of the future are more valuable than the history of the past. 

Experience is at best yesterday's answer to today's problem. Your past is not your potential. Never build your future around your past. The past is over. To succeed, you must be willing to shed part of your previous life.

Daniel Meacham cautions, "keep your eye on the road, and use your rear-view mirror only to avoid trouble." stop taking journeys into the past. Don't make the mistake of letting yesterday use up too much of today.

It is more valuable to look where you're going than to see where you've been. Don't view your future only from the perspective of yesterday. It's too easy to limit everything and hinder the dream within you. "the past should be a springboard, not a hammock," said Edmund Burke. You can never plan the future by looking at the past. Those to whom yesterday still looks big aren't doing much today.

Your future contains more happiness than any past you can remember. Don't look at your past to determine your future. You can't walk backward into your future. The misery can be found by being a yesterday person. Yesterday person trying to get along in a tomorrow world. Don't let your past mistakes becomes your memorials. They should be cremated, not embalmed. 

Those who predominantly tall about the past are going backwards. Those who talk about the present are usually maintaining. But those who talk about the future are growing. The more you look backward, the less you'll see what's ahead for you.

Some people stay so far in the past that the future is gone before they get there. The future frightens those who prefer living in the past. No one has ever backed into prosperity. You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday today. Yesterday has passed forever and is beyond our control. What lies behind us is insignificant compared to what lies ahead.