Held Accountable

 

Probably one of the most common conversations I have is with people who are struggling with how their past is effecting their present. Some of the things we've done, been through or had happen to us can reach far into the future and stay with us long after they happen.

"Don't let your past effect your effect your present."

"You don't have to let where you've been determine where you go from here."

"Who you were doesn't have to tell the story of who you are or who you'll be."

These are the kinds of things we hope to hear and they're true. We all have the opportunity to make new choices, different choices than we made in our past, different than even yesterday. Why is it though that when we are talking to that person who is hoping they can change we are so quick to remind them of this but when we are talking about someone who had made some bad choices we have that mindset that they may never change?

If I was talking to someone who said that they were tired of being judged by their past I would encourage them to just keep making better decisions and not to let what happened or who they were before limit where they hope to go or who they hope to be. However when talking to someone who is involved with a person with a "history" of sorts, we automatically carry that person past right into the present.

  or                    

 

I know I'm guilty of this.

So where or how do you draw the line between wanting to protect people from someone with a past and not holding someone else accountable in the present for what they did in the past.

I really do believe that we all have the potential to be better today than we were yesterday. I guess that's just harder to see in some than others.