How the Rearview Mirror on Your Car Can Help You Cope with Change
Imagine that you’re driving down a road. You’re in your favorite vehicle. This is the car, truck, or SUV you really love. Sometimes merely getting in it and taking a ride going nowhere can put a positive spin on an otherwise tough day.
You play some music while you are driving. Your mood gets better still. You don’t have a care in the world. You take the scenic route down a country road you have not traveled before. As you move down the road taking in all the scenery (while still driving carefully), you glance in your rearview mirror.
Good drivers do this regularly. It’s important to know what’s happening around you while piloting a vehicle. However, this time when you look, you see something weird (insert your own weird observation here).
It’s not something that is going to affect you in any way. But it is strange nonetheless. You keep looking in your rearview mirror. You can’t take your eyes off of that crazy thing. You know you should be focused on the road ahead of you and whatever changes you might have to deal with, but you are fixated on your rearview mirror.
Crash!
Your obsession with the object in your rearview mirror takes your eyes off the road ahead of you for too long. You veer off of the road and scrape a tree. Fortunately, you had decreased your speed enough that it’s not too big of a deal. Still, there is a lesson to be learned.
What’s Behind You Is Behind You
Constantly obsessing about your past will never help you accept the change happening to you right now. It won’t prepare you for any changes ahead of you either. You have to eventually take your eyes out of that rearview mirror, or something bad might happen.
When your life shifts negatively, it can be tough to get over it. That’s just normal. Something may have been removed from your life that was very important. We’re not here to say it will be easy to get over this event. We are saying that letting it rule your life is probably not the healthiest response.
Come to grips with whatever difficult change you have to accept. Let your emotions out. Don’t hide them inside. Talk about the experience with someone. Then take whatever positives you can from experience, as hard as that may be.
Remember that as soon as anything happens, it quickly moves into your past.
If you have to deal with something negative, it will quickly be behind you. Don’t keep staring at it in your rearview mirror. Accept what happened and put your attention on the road ahead of you as soon as you can.
