“It is a hard thing to leave any deeply routined life, even if you hate it.”
John Steinbeck – “East of Eden”
All day long, for years and years and years, you have been making choices. This way, or that.
Your “past” is really nothing more than the total sum of the choices you have made. And you can choose to see your past in one of two ways.
As a prison sentence – you see yourself as obligated to stay forever consistent to your past choices, even if you feel you now know better.
Or as a gift – you see the past as something offered to you by your former self, something you are free to accept if it still feels right, or to turn down, if you feel you now know better than you once did.
Your past certainly informs your present – and the longer you do something, the easier it gets to continue – but it does not dictate your present. You are always free to change direction. If something your past self has gifted to you doesn’t feel right any more, toss it. Say thank you for the offer, and go in the direction that feels right today.