The Past DOES Equal the Future (Blog)

[supertom]

I've gotten a better understanding of TLP from this thread, Truth is my strong alignment. Courage is my weakest area.

[myLifeSessions]

What is past? It is what Today will become Tomorrow.

Your Past DOES NOT equal your future, is a very empowering statement. It creates a vision for us that we can break free from the shackles of our dreaded past. It enables us to become that higher or better self regardless of our past. Most of us won't even dare to think about a new life, as we are so scared by our pasts.

Your Past DOES equal your future is an equally inspiring statement. It reminds us that we are creating our future by our own actions.

You need both these main ingredients (statements) and some other important ingredients to create your recipe for change and success. You reduce your chances, if you fail to use either of these statements at the right time.

Picture this, you are driving down the road to failure and you decide that YOUR PAST DOES NOT EQUAL YOUR FUTURE and you create a new vision/roadmap/action plan to change your course/path to lead to success. You plug in your new vision in your Sat Nav/GPS and take the first step towards your new direction. Now after following the first few instructions from your GPS, you start to ignore it (old habits kicking in) and you miss a few turns. Before you know it, you are on the downward spiral to your old self. It is very important that after those first steps, you start reminding yourself that YOUR (NEW) PAST DOES EQUAL YOUR FUTURE. Because your actions TODAY will be your PAST TOMORROW.

What matters most is your PRESENT. Your present is the only thing you can control. Your past has already slipped out of your hands and you have not seen your future yet. You can control your actions Today to shape your Tomorrow the way you want it to be.

Live in the moment and always enjoy the journey.

[Jeff Lilly]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Truth + Power = Authority.

Everyone is in a different boat here. In my case I am very good at creating what I want. My Power to create my reality is high. When I want something, I know I can get it with enough focus and discipline. If I want to change directions in life, I can make it happen. But I have the hardest time estimating how long things will take. Sometimes I grossly overestimate time; other times I make the opposite mistake.

I have found that silencing the ego is extremely helpful for Truth-alignment, especially when it comes to predicting what others will do. If I silence myself enough, it's like I can HEAR what other people are going to do, and when they're going to do it, often much better than they know themselves. Not that the ego should be permanently subsumed -- but being able to turn it on and off is definitely a plus. :-)

[ssandra]

I did it!!!

I actually got up and went to the gym today!

I actually did it!

Normally, I would have thought, in the morning, oh well.. I can go tomorrow, today I didn't sleep well.. or whatever excuse..

But now I was thinking, If I don't go today, my future will be the same as my past. Lots of ideas, but no follow through.

So.. if I want my future to be what I want it to be, I have to change my past NOW.

And I did.

I am so proud of myself and so happy with myself!!

Thank you Steve for giving me the kick in the *ss that I needed

[carenkh]

Originally Posted by mikeschu

The initial reaction for me was that #1 appears to ring more true. Then I recognized that both have their positives and negatives, and the statements just kind of "are". Neither statement is more true than the other.

That's what I thought. I also thought, the kind of person who reads "The Past DOES Equal the Future" and becomes hopeless and depressed might not be the kind of person for whom Steve is writing. I know, because at one point, that would have been me. They have more growing to do, to own their lives enough to become motivated to change.

This was the Daily Quote this morning, from LivingCompassion.org:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act; it is a habit.
- Will Durant

[shasah]

Originally Posted by ssandra

I did it!!!

I actually got up and went to the gym today!

I actually did it!

Normally, I would have thought, in the morning, oh well.. I can go tomorrow, today I didn't sleep well.. or whatever excuse..

But now I was thinking, If I don't go today, my future will be the same as my past. Lots of ideas, but no follow through.

So.. if I want my future to be what I want it to be, I have to change my past NOW.

And I did.

I am so proud of myself and so happy with myself!!

Thank you Steve for giving me the kick in the *ss that I needed

And you should be proud of yourself!! Good job.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I have the hardest time estimating how long things will take. Sometimes I grossly overestimate time; other times I make the opposite mistake.

You mean like correctly predicting how long it will take you to get the CGW DVDS ready?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by seeker5

You mean like correctly predicting how long it will take you to get the CGW DVDS ready?

Yeah... exactly.

You should see how many "it will be online tomorrow" statements I've made to myself regarding the new CGW sales page... for the past 2 weeks.

I should stick with "eventually" for all time estimates henceforth.

Of course... going through a separation/divorce doesn't exactly speed up many work projects.

[Jahd Moon]

You seem to contradict everything Tony says or does. You call his seminars concerts, you disagree with his conditioning methods (espacially anchors), etc. In fact nothing is wrong with that, and it's a good way to distinct yourself from the crowd.

Nevertheless, no one can deny Tony's wide range of capabilities. I mean it's very easy to read and learn about personal development and start teaching people about it (I don't just mean you Steve), but the real power resides in your ability to create certain results. For instance, Tony is known for his ability to cure phobias in very short periods of time. He's also called upon to enhance the peformance of top athletes, etc. If you for example didn't find any value in one of his seminars, it doesn't mean that other people are not benefiting from his work.

But the most important point here is that you can NOT say with such certainty that the past does equal the future for a simple reason: It's just how you view it. It's your version of reality, which means that I can disagree with it and still be right. You have your reasons to bilieve the past does equal the future, and many other have their reasons to believe just the opposite.

But what's really important is the ability of each one of those two statements to inspire and get people moving. I don't care much which one is stronger logically, or how many people believe in it, what I do care about is it's effectiveness and ability to make me move and progress. It's the same idea of installing and removing belief systems. Whichever works and gets you results is absolutely right. In this world, you can't say something or someone is deadly wrong. Because reality is very elusive and there are unlimited ways of looking at it. In fact, reality is not viewed, but rather, created, and every one can create the reality he likes or finds helpful.

[Lemon Juice]

I have mixed feelings about the quality of this article. I treat it more as food for thought, a trigger for evaluating my beliefs but certainly not something I want to come back to, re-read and be inspired by. Intellectually, there are some valuable ideas but they are delivered in such a way that may disempower people. I think much of what impaul99 said holds true so I will not repeat the same thing.

The past does not equal the future is a favorite saying of Tony Robbins.Unfortunately he’s dead wrong.

If Steve really believes what he has written then I must conclude his perspective is very limited. Taking a sentence like this out of context and arguing with it does not make sense at all because in this way you can disprove any belief and say the other person is wrong. Depending on the context this sentence CAN be true or false. It's as if someone asked me if I believe in God. To one person I could answer yes, of course I believe in God, and continue with a lengthy conversation about God and how much of him/her I see in everyday life. To another person I might say I don't believe in any God and that I am fine with being an atheist and talk to them how I feel empowered by feeling fully responsible for my own life. And I wouldn't lie to any of those people! The truth of the sentence totally depends on the context and the same is true of what Steve tried to disprove - he may never be right in this case in the same way as he may never be false. And the debate may go on forever whether he is right or wrong because different people will understand the sentence in a different context of their own beliefs and experiences.

I understand that Steve wanted to grab people's attention by such a bold statement, - he has guts to say that such a personal achievement guru as Tony Robbins is *dead wrong*! Apart from it being a statement to stir controversy and attract attention, I consider it a pretty immature attitude towards personal development as a whole. I've seen many people in various self-development fields belittling other people doing something similar in the same field. One yoga teacher explains why that other yoga teacher is no good and why his style is worse than mine. That taichi teacher does this differently and he is doing it wrong, I know how this should be done. That hooponopono teacher is not saying the whole truth, and so on and on. And finally there are the few who I consider the real teachers who say go and meet many teachers, many masters and use your own feeling/jugdement/intuition to decide which one suits you best. Because everyone has their unique style of inspiring people and the fact that Steve doesn't consider Tony Robbins' statement to be true doesn't make it less true even if he has a whole bunch of reasons why. It may not be true for him and for some people but saying he is "dead wrong" sounds to me like a cheap attempt to discredit Tony Robbins' methodologies and prove something that cannot be proven. Moreover, Tony has taught millions of people and so there is no way there won't be any who are able only to bring about temporary change after his workshops. With such a large audience there will be a lot of people who will not make it, it can't be any other way. But there are also a lot of people who made lasting change and found the statement "The past does not equal the future" to be one the most beneficial beliefs.

Having said the above, I am still grateful to Steve for writing this article because he made me think about these concepts and stirred the interesting discussion in this forum. He is good in that and he deserves the credit. It's just that I don't buy anymore to BS like "I am right and he is (dead) wrong". I don't think that quality bloggers need to resort to such tactics of driving traffic. And besides, I don't think it increases Steve's credibility in any way.

Apart from that, I became inspired to look at some of Tony's materials after many years of not reading anything by him. And still I find him very inspirational. I have come across a video like this:

Viddler.com - Tony Robbins Interview w/ Frank Kern & John Reese

That was really inspirational to watch! I observed that only by watching viedos with Tony and reading his materials my energy and passion increase, and I am actually finally getting my self to follow through with many things I used to put off and neglect in my life. What a refreshing contrast! This article by Steve seems to inspire by presenting some down-to-earth disempowering beliefs. Tony Robbins inspires by empowering you right away into a better feeling state. At this point I'd rather be inspired in the latter way!

And just to finish my post - thanks Steve, and thanks Tony!

[Lioness]

Originally Posted by Lemon Juice

I. It's just that I don't buy anymore to BS like "I am right and he is (dead) wrong". I don't think that quality bloggers need to resort to such tactics of driving traffic. And besides, I don't think it increases Steve's credibility in any way.

My sentiments exactly. I am usually inspired by and agree with Steve's blogs, but this one was a rare disappointment. The title and the tag line seemed to be a bait and switch which felt a bit tacky and beneath SP's usual standard. It seemed that the article then twisted itself into a pretzel to justify these claims. Statements such as "to change the future, change the past" just don't make sense to me. "inject your goals and intentions into your past to create the evidence that will alter your predictions about where you're headed..." Huh?

The only way of changing the past that makes any sense is to change your PERCEPTION of past events and emphasize the times when you were successful and try to repeat these patterns. Maybe that's what he was saying. But dwelling in the past seems counter-productive to me.

What did resonate, however, was the whole Gung-ho Dufus thing. How many of us have gone to a seminar, sermon, motivation speech, etc and got all fired-up only to fall back into our same routine weeks, or even days later. What I did get out of the article is that setting goals that require vast, sweeping changes often backfires. It's just not the way most human beings work. Building the HABITS, day by day, that we can predict wil lead to our goals, and practicing the new habits with graduality and consistency seems to generate the most success.

[Jahd Moon]

Apart from that, I became inspired to look at some of Tony's materials after many years of not reading anything by him. And still I find him very inspirational.

Look, for many personal development experts and speakers Tony Robbins is both a model and a barrier. His speaking style, the amount of energy he invokes in you just by speaking, his whole story, and everything about him make him an extraordinary person. In fact many many people who work in this field can't do what he does in his seminars, and can't possibly work with the number of people he had worked with, or achieve what he had achieved in their lifetimes. So it's pretty normal to find writers who try to challenge his work and statements because he's sort of a standard in the industry. It's really hard to think about personal achievement, motivation, etc, without having him pop up in your mind...

[Jahd Moon]

"inject your goals and intentions into your past to create the evidence that will alter your predictions about where you're headed..." Huh?

What makes you confused my friend? Now with all the visualization, LOA, and other technologies described on the net and books you can think, feel, and be anything or anybody you want. Just sit down in a quiet place and IMAGINE your past is exactly what you want your future to be and success is a guaranteed result. If you don't believe me just ask a LOA practitioner and he'll tell you how fantastic it feels...

[Kate DuBois]

While I was reading this post, I thought of all the movies that use time travel, both past and future to create a new outcome in the future (The Lake House, Back to the Future, Kate & Leopold). It might sound outlandish, but so many things are until one or two or 20 brave persons try it and keep trying it until it becomes second nature and we reach critical mass. And how can you really dismiss it unless you commit to the process and see for yourself?

I've done personal growth seminars where we've been taken back in time to find the core issue that is creating a negative pattern, and it's been a real eye opener for me. I've heard of people rewriting the past to create a new future, and sometimes it's called denial, and sometimes it leads to bigger problems in the future. But not always.

And if we live from the place of "our past creates our future," there's little hope for anyone improving without extraordinary awareness and massive action.

Seems to me that approaching change from both a practical (daily actions) and spiritual (divine guidance through intuitive awareness) is most helpful.

Authors Deborah Morrison & Arvind Singh talk about this in their book "The Law of Attraction", which is a more holistic perspective than what most of us think about LOA. Here's an excerpt:

"Yield to peace that is always within you. You will find that doing
so will effortlessly drop your regret of the past, and concern for
the future. You will start to live your life in the present moment,
with ‘I Am’ awareness. This is where all magic happens in life.
When you are present, then you are truly empowered to shift your
reality with effective action."

[James81]

Originally Posted by Kate DuBois

"Yield to peace that is always within you. You will find that doing
so will effortlessly drop your regret of the past, and concern for
the future. You will start to live your life in the present moment,
with ‘I Am’ awareness. This is where all magic happens in life.
When you are present, then you are truly empowered to shift your
reality with effective action."

I love this quote.

And this is exactly what I was thinking about this morning. Just realizing that it's been a week since my breakthrough moment and that I haven't felt compelled to "do" anything just yet. For now I've just been enjoying the fact that I wake up feeling good about myself, that I wake up without having to carry this "ton of bricks" around on my shoulders all day. That even when I revert back to the old pattern of thinking, that I can "snap back" just by realizing that that pattern was just a voice in a little kid's head.

[Lionman]

The Past Does Equal the Future was a fantastic post. Lots of people seem to be having a problem with it, which is not suprising seeing as the past is demonized in the self-help community. Since time includes the past, it makes sense that it would have a part to play in "Truth" other than just ignoring it. If, for instance, you suddenly you lost your past, you would have really bad amnesia and wouldn't remember how to talk, listen, read or perceive anything seeing as these abilities are a product of past learning.

The present is the magical moment of now which you are completely free to alter your future by changing yourself or your environment. Every passing present moment becomes your past, of course. So by changing things in your present, you are forever changing your past which leads you to your future.

So what's the best course of action to take in the present to get the future you want? If you do what you always do, you will get what you always get. More of the same then? Sure... if having looked at your recent past (remember the 30 days or so Steve mentions), you have been making the progress you want. If not, then that's a pretty good ****ing indicator you need to change your present (/PAST) habits to get to your desired goal.

[geniegal]

I think the problem with the post was this:

he introduces a quite brilliant point (early enthusiasm with a new habit always make s you promise the earth to your future self , but it rarely is permanent) but then goes on to explain it with a very difficult , obtuse explanation.

I find with brilliant A HA concepts I need the space to let them absorb into my thinking - to add a really complex idea like 'you need to alter how you see the past' was hard enough - but then saying that altering your past is the ONLY way to change the future is very muddy conceptually.

Here's my translation of the what the post meant to me

Initial fervour for a new habit often is no indicator of how permenent the habit will actually be. You need to prove through continued habit that it really is valid

This way I feel in control and set myself a challenge to carry on. I agree that the title sacrifices clarity for attention grabbing.

I come from the UK, land of the skeptic where we laugh at people like Anthony Robbins, so I understand Steve's cynicism. However I think he was a bit tunnel vision concentrating on demolishing one of Robbins' over simplifications. (I actually really like some of Robbins' ideas)

In the end nobody - not Steve or Tony - has all the answers - only you do. Just think of these guys as food for thought

[soarian]

After reading the assertions behind the title to this blog, and considering that I love how Tony Robbins' declaration "nails it home" for me, well I got so steamed that I deleted Pavlina's web site from my bookmarks. But after mulling it over all weekend, I thought there was actually more to like about Pavlina's site than not, so I bookmarked it again, and well, I'M BAAAACK. Open mind and all.

[Amit_S]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Instead of trying to change your present or your future, focus on changing your past.

Instead what you need to do is inject some form of consistency into your past. You need to establish a new pattern of behavior. That new recent past, if it looks consistent enough, will alter your predictions about the future.

Hello Steve n everyone here.
I did not have to wait for a year to see that my life is a cycle of the same **** over and over again.
In the past what I would do is take the gung-ho approach and try harder...n again it would work for a while and then ka-put!

I'm a year short of 30. No graduation, work in the media field- and more often than not just get by in my work. Balding, fatter every day, suffering from ADHD and chronic depression.....n really nowhere to go, no plans for the future.
At least in the past I used to keep trying this n that to change, but now I'm like 'why try at all..."...learned helplessness I think you call it.


So what exactly did Steve mean inn the above quoted sentences? Is he simply saying that we should establish good work HABITS? That only after we repeatedly do something good over a long period of time that we can see some change in our life? is that the solution he is offering.

[shasah]

Originally Posted by Amit_S

Hello Steve n everyone here.
I did not have to wait for a year to see that my life is a cycle of the same **** over and over again.
In the past what I would do is take the gung-ho approach and try harder...n again it would work for a while and then ka-put!

I'm a year short of 30. No graduation, work in the media field- and more often than not just get by in my work. Balding, fatter every day, suffering from ADHD and chronic depression.....n really nowhere to go, no plans for the future.
At least in the past I used to keep trying this n that to change, but now I'm like 'why try at all..."...learned helplessness I think you call it.


So what exactly did Steve mean inn the above quoted sentences? Is he simply saying that we should establish good work HABITS? That only after we repeatedly do something good over a long period of time that we can see some change in our life? is that the solution he is offering.

I don't see it the same. I see it as setting good life habits. The change you make today will later be your past. If you change nothing, then nothing will change. Is that really where you want to be?

[theknightwhosaysni-NI]

Today I opened my journal and there was a note saying "go read the entry written one year ago, on 20 april 2010"...

I was wondering...Why did I put this reminder ?

I read my one year old entry : it was a prediction of where I was going to be a year from now - which is today !

The prediction was very accurate, although a few new things were not predicted.

I'm happy cause it's all pretty positive, but the I'm still stagnant in the area I was stagnant a year ago.

Steve wrote : I suggest you write down some of your predictions [...]. Record them in your journal.
Then put a note on your calendar a year from now that says something like, “Review journal entry on predictions from a year ago.” If you use an online calendar, this takes only seconds.
Then when your reminder pops up a year from now, review your predictions. How did they turn out?

[ChrisG]

I did that just now as well.

It's amazing because I get to see which areas are still weak points for me, and where I actually need to get myself in gear to sort out and focus on if I want to succeed in them.

Equally important, I can see where I've been a bit pessimistic in some of the predictions, and take that as proof that I can change and that I can improve myself, that I can grow.

Who else wrote predictions like this? Who else is going to review them in this same kind of way?

ALSO- I think that we should do this again for next year. Anyone up for it?

[Keith]

Originally Posted by impaul99

How exactly do people go about even first creating the desire to establish a new habit if they don't first believe that "the future does not equal the past"?

This is a new perspective and to be honest, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself.

For me it's creating desire because it's showing me that, while I can't DIRECTLY change the future (and I've banged my head against that one enough times to recognise its truth) that I DO have the very cool ability to inject changes into my past. That's actually very motivating.

Quasi-related aside: xkcd: Kayak

BTW, I mostly chipped in to say that neither Bill OR Ted are likely to have a coherent, saleable novel by the end of the year, but Ted will be by far the likelier of the two to write one in the following year.