We all have a past, right? Not something we can forget about or ignore, even if we try. And it’s always a mix of all the ups and downs in life. We’ve probably got more of the downs than we’d like to remember, but, that’s life.  Some good things. Some very good things, and some not so good things as well. But we can learn from the past. We can take all the good and the bad and use it all for what we want to step into for the next chapter in our lives. Now why would I have this as a topic under the umbrella of starting an online business? How does this topic fit in to that overall theme? It fits (in my opinion) because, as I’m sure you know, in order to start something new, we need to take what we’ve learned from the past and make our future better.   We can become better people with all that we’ve learned in the past. We can try things that we’ve never been able to try in previous life situations or relationships. We have choices on what to do with our past. Your entire past, your actions, results and feelings are all available if we choose to tap into them. So, what can we do with our past? We can: ·      Study it ·      Replay it ·      Generalize it ·      Release yourself from it ·      Reframe it ·      Use it Study it. Studying the past can be rather difficult for some. Especially if you’ve had a very rough past. But you’re not studying the past to relive the good or bad experiences you’ve had, you’re studying the past to build a mental file of tools and approaches that will help you make new, more informed and yes, even wiser decisions in the future. I did this a few years ago when thinking about how I launched my business back in 2002 and all the struggles I had. This helped me to pivot into a different direction with my business. Replay it. Now, be careful with this one. Replaying a situation is different than just reflecting on it. Try walking back through the situation like you’re reliving the situation, (only if it’s a healthy one), but now, with the knowledge and perspective that you have after the fact. This replay is going to give you a new perspective and new insight to help you think how you might do something different or better the next time a similar situation happens. For me, on this one, I rethink when I had spent a year as a so called ‘partner’ for someone else’s business. He was full of lies and tried to rip me off for all he could. I’ll never do that again.   Generalize it. The situation in your past might never occur in exactly the same way again. But that doesn’t change the value in looking back. By reflecting on the past, we can find common threads…maybe a pattern of behavior that we can learn to avoid for the future. Release yourself from it. There are some things in your past that you may regret or feel guilty about, or wish you would have done differently. I know I have a bunch. But the fact is, however badly you feel, however desperately you wish you could change it, it’s in the past. The page has turned. This may mean to forgive others or yourself. Let go of pain or guilt and give yourself the freedom to move forward. Living in the past will keep you stuck in the past. These podcast episodes are to help you to move forward with your dreams. And in order to do that, you’ll need to believe in yourself. You won’t be able to do that if you’re stuck in the past about negative things. Reframe it. Reframing the past is something we can do with the perspective that comes from replaying it and releasing ourselves from it. While we can’t change our past, we can reframe the situation to serve us better in the future. Was getting fired a failure or a great learning experience? If could be both, or either one (I can certainly attest to that). The fact is – if you were fired, you were fired. How you frame and use that experience makes all the difference. This isn’t about denial or lying to ourselv