We all have goals, well hopefully. Occupational goals could include doctor, lawyer, musician, or maybe you still want to be an astronaut like you did when you were 4 years old. Maybe you have a weight goal, a grade goal, or a financial goal, but either way, you’re striving for something. Major setbacks aside, most of these things are attainable. I mean, I go to Belmont, which is a great school, and I live in Nashville, which is a city buzzing with opportunity, so why am I struggling? I have all the resources to succeed? The reason we struggle isn’t necessarily from our external environment, but internal.

Most of us are striving for success by trying to avoid regrets or mistakes in the past. Instead of learning from them, we freak out and do everything we can to try to prevent these things from happening again. Like they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We are trying to avoid insanity, because let’s be real, “you’re insane” isn’t exactly a compliment. But this bogs us down, it makes us stagnant and not productive because we are so consumed with worry.

So what do we do?

Instead of finding motivation from our past, we need to find motivation from our future. I know it’s cliché, but you can literally make the future whatever you want, it’s a blank slate, the past is not. Wouldn’t you rather start a painting on a blank canvas than a dirty graffitied wall?

As a wise friend once said, when you motivate someone to run a mile, you don’t chase them, you give them something to run to.

Strive for your own private practice, strive to be the first person on Mars, strive to lose that 10 pounds; or start with a smaller goal, like me who just wants more than $7 in her bank account. But don’t let failing once stop you now. Leave the past where it belongs.

Be insane (it’s not so bad).