Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today, meaning: This quote is all about regrets and moving forward in life. Although yesterday is real and we can remember most of it, it still is not a place where we live. Our life is in the present moment and if yesterday takes too much of it, our present and future will suffer. In the same principle, our past failures or successes are only events in time. They are long gone. How will that change our present or future unless we act on it?
Another part of this quote is the regrets of the past. Life is about today, the present and the future we can create from whatever we have learnt. The best thing we can do is to find ways to keep moving forward. In this article, we will discuss the meaning of this quote by Will Rogers and the power of focus on the present.
Don’t Let Yesterday Take Up Too Much Of Today Meaning
The Yesterday represents our past – we all carry a lot of baggage. This is our experiences, challenges and pain in the past life. This influences how we think today. Sometimes, these past experiences can limit our ability to take risks, and find belief and trust with others. However, the quote says that while we recognise that these events happened yesterday, they still influence us. The first step for us is to know what’s influencing us and how. Once we know this, the next step is to find out how to prevent it from changing our current life.
Don’t Let Yesterday Take Up Too Much Of Today
–Will Rogers
Ultimately, we must keep moving forward and find ways to enrich our lives. If the past is making an unhelpful influence, we must change that. The most important point in this quote is about focusing on the present! Yesterday was a long time ago, no matter how many times we think about it, we can’t change it. The best we can do is find a way to use this experience and move forward in life. The past can be a great indicator of the future and give us lessons to learn. But if we dwell on it too much, it can be a trap and hold us there forever. So, we must be careful not to obsess over the past. We still live in the present day and it needs our attention and focus.
Learn from yesterday but move forward today
The true meaning of Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today is in identifying the meaning of your experiences. Our experiences give us valuable feedback. It is up to us to define how we use this feedback. Some people take it personally which affects their confidence and prevents them from growing. Some others treat this as a source of knowledge and create better plans for the future. You see, everything comes down to our mindset and how we solve our problems.
Things happen for a reason, they always do! It might be a philosophical belief, but things happen. Once an event has occurred, you cannot go back in time to change it. The only thing you can do is define what to do next. Nothing ever is solved by sitting idle and doing nothing!
- If you let the thoughts of yesterday ruin today, it will be a continuous cycle. You cannot go back in time and change the past.
- You cannot keep thinking that just because it went wrong last time, it will go wrong again.
Quotes about the past
Here’s a set of quotes from the website. These quotes follow a common theme about living life at the moment. Some of these quotes talk about learning from the past. There are also themes around living in the moment, using experiences of our past.
Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow – L Ron Hubbard
Live as if you were to die tomorrow, Learn as if you were to live forever – Mahatma Gandhi
It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”― Lewis Carroll
Life Can Only Be Understood Backwards. But it must be lived forwards – Soren Kierkgaard
Ultimately, I can’t impress the point of dwelling on the past enough. It is all about today and the present. Each moment in our hands is precious, our history can help us move ahead. If it is bringing us down, then perhaps it is time to view it differently, right?
I saw this post some days back, but I guess I was destined to read this today–when I needed it the most!
Thanks for this one, Vinay!
There are some things I need to work on now…. the most important being, to let go of yesterday and not imagine it will repeat tomorrow! :)
Thank you for your kind words Shilpa. It’s words like these which makes me feel it was really a piece worth writing 😊.
I know what you mean, the ghosts of the past tend to haunt us. Funnily enough the more time we spend on them, they demand more. The key is to find a way through them or beyond them.. there are way more important things 😊
Interesting! In a way I guess it’s a process of going through that pain and finding an organic closure. Just to imagine, how would it be if there was a way to get to the end result faster while utilising the resources for our benefit? I know I might sound a bit cheeky but it is about using our emotions for our benefit ! 😊.
Thanks for the feedback, it’s just me writing at the moment and trying to get into an uninterrupted flow. I might be switching between plurals and singulars inadvertently. A good thing to be mindful of, I’ll take a note of it as I write the further few posts 👍
For me I have to bring the regrets to their natural closure.
I have to talk to myself and agree that it was a mistake or error but it is okay to make mistakes in life. With a promise not to repeat it we move forward.
That is the only way it works for me .. takes some time though!
The blog posts here communicates in first person plural, I wonder the number of writers posting here.