Echoes of Elul Day 26: Mind Games

By Arielle Ohls

Starting over, year after year, always begins with reflection on the past. What worked, what didn’t, what I could do better, what I learned from this, etc.

I believe we all have the tendency to dwell in the “what we could have done better realm.” We hope that it will, in turn, allow us to learn from our mistakes. However, I have found that when I lament in the negative of where things went wrong, how they could have been better, or the endless list of what could have been different, it leaves me feeling unfulfilled.

When I stay in a negative space and hope for change, I have not focused on the positive of what was accomplished and I haven’t learned from the experience.

So, I have recently started to shift my thinking from the “what I should have done was” to a “next time I will…” process. This small shift has reframed my mindset to focus on the future and learn from the past. We cannot move forward without leaving the past behind us, and reframing our experiences positively allows us to move forward in a constructive direction…after all, the goal is progress, not perfection.