You don’t need to burn the dock to push off your boat.

You don’t need to dis how you’ve done things in order to do things differently.

There’s no need to criticize the past to validate the future.

But we do.

We look at how we overworked it or how we missed the mark or all the reasons it, they, you, me, we fell short. We start to shrink the value of the past so that we can justify taking new aim or giving notice or taking the leap that will move us in a new direction. We give others and ourselves logical—and often deprecating—reasons that it’s time for a change. We take a perfectly good essay of our life learning and accomplishments, and we red pen it with margin notes of all that could have been done differently, so that we can damn well do it differently next time.

Not only does dissing how you got to where you are dishonor your past and make for some negative juju, it weighs on your transformational process. How you regard your past influences how your future unfolds.

You did what you needed to do at the time with what you had to work. Thankfully, praise be, alleluia! Now let’s move on to the part when you have a breakthrough and wake up knowing more. It’s not about knowing better; it’s about knowing more.

And now you know
where you want to go
next.

. . . . . . .

xo.

Danielle LaPorte is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide for Creating Success on Your Own Terms(Random House/Crown). An inspirational speaker, former think tank exec and business strategist, she is the co-creator of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan. Her next online program launches November 2012, called DESIRE: The Map to What You Truly Want.

Over a million visitors have gone to DanielleLaPorte.com for her straight-up advice — a site that’s been deemed “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality”, and was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes.

You can find her on Facebook and Twitter @daniellelaporte

*Photo by nasrulekram.