Every day we get the opportunity to turn our life around. To be someone we want to be. To be the best version of ourselves. Even if our past has not been what we wanted it to be, our future can be. Our past does not have to determine our future. In the words of Olivia Benson of Law and Order, who said on a recent episode, “You Don’t Have to Have a Great Past to Have a Great Future.” Those words resonated with me, so I wrote them down, knowing I would use them in a blog post, although I wasn’t sure when. This seems to be the right time. Someone reading this needs this message, although I have no idea who. But you do. You know who you are.

Life can be tough. We have unexpected problems. We may be doing fine one minute, then, wham, our world turns upside down. It may be a health crisis that brings us to our knees. It may be a family problem that stops us in our tracks. It may be a financial setback that threatens to destroy all of our security. One minute our life is on a successful trend line, then the next we are struggling to even stay afloat. No one is immune from life’s twists and turns.    

You may have heard the quote, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” The philosophy of this is that we must first believe. We must believe we can before we can. Even so, belief alone isn’t enough. All of the positive affirmations will be empty beliefs if we do not put action to our beliefs. But action alone can have us spinning our wheels and going nowhere if we do not truly believe in ourselves.

Believing in ourselves is not egotistical. When we believe in ourselves, we are confident, not arrogant. Confidence is necessary to turn our lives around. Be confident, then get to work to do what is necessary to put confidence into action.

Remember, our past does not determine our future. Our present does.