When a thing is done, it is done. No amount of staring at the ashes will bring back the fire. No amount of replaying the past will rewrite it. The page has already been written; your task now is to turn it and face the blank one before you.
But here is the danger: too many people chain themselves to yesterday. They wear their failures like shackles and their victories like crutches. They forget that both success and failure have an expiry date. What carried you yesterday cannot carry you forever.
Think of the archer. Once the arrow has left the bow, he does not chase it in the air, wishing to adjust its path. He accepts where it flies and prepares the next shot with steadier hands. You must live like that release, accept, and ready yourself for the next aim.
Dwelling on what is done will steal from what could yet be. If you spend all your strength staring backward, you will have no energy to run forward. Yesterday’s closed doors do not need your knocking; tomorrow’s doors wait for your courage to open them.
This is not about denial. It is about wisdom. Learn from the past, yes. Let it shape you, sharpen you, humble you. But do not let it cage you. Do not glorify what cannot be changed. The ground ahead is fertile, but it demands your steps.
Your next objective is waiting, and it does not care how many times you stumbled before. The future does not measure you by your scars; it measures you by your stride. Every moment you delay in regret is a moment stolen from the life you could be building.
Ask yourself: what is ahead of me that I cannot see because I am too busy staring behind me? What door is waiting, what opportunity is calling, what strength is lying dormant, all because I keep clutching what has already ended?
Do not waste your present grieving over what no longer belongs to you. Do not let pride keep you from starting again. Do not let shame keep you from stepping forward. Let the old chapter rest, because it has done its work. Even the best book cannot move unless you turn the page.
And here is the truth: the future belongs to those who refuse to be trapped in memory. Greatness belongs to those who rise after the fall, who celebrate but do not camp around victory, who mourn but do not worship defeat.
So hear this admonition: when it’s done, it’s done. Don’t look back too long. Look forward. Aim again. Dream again. Fight again. Build again. Because life is not about how well you held onto yesterday , it is about how boldly you step into tomorrow.
Let me share a brief story about a lady called Rashida.
Rashida had always been the kind of woman who held on tightly. She held on to friendships that had faded, to mistakes she had long outgrown, and to dreams that no longer belonged to her season. Her mind often replayed what could have been, what should have happened, what she wished she could change.
One evening, as the sun sank low, Rashida sat by her window staring at a sealed envelope in her hand. It was her rejection letter from a company she had prayed would hire her. She had read it a hundred times, each word cutting deeper. To her, that letter was not just an answer, it was a wall.
Her grandmother, Aisha, came to sit beside her. The old woman’s eyes carried the wisdom of years, and her voice had a calm strength.
“Child,” she said, “why do you keep reading what is already written? Do you think staring at that letter will turn it into a yes?”
Rashida sighed. “It feels like I failed. Like everything I hoped for is gone.”
Aisha smiled softly. “When a thing is done, it is done. You cannot fight a closed door. But you can decide where your feet will go next. The world is wide, Rashida. Why chain yourself to one wall when there are countless doors ahead?”
That night, Rashida could not sleep. Her grandmother’s words echoed inside her chest. She thought of all the times she had stood still, waiting for something to change in the past instead of moving toward the future. She realized that every moment she spent looking back was stealing her chance to move forward.
The next morning, Rashida made a choice. She folded the rejection letter neatly, not to read again, but to place inside a box she labeled Lessons. “This belongs to yesterday,” she whispered.
Then she opened her laptop and began applying to new opportunities ,different industries, unexpected roles, positions she had once been too afraid to consider. Her hands trembled, but her heart felt lighter.
Weeks passed, and Rashida received a call from a small startup she had barely remembered applying to. They offered her a role that wasn’t just a job it was a challenge that matched her hidden skills, a path that stretched her beyond what she had imagined.
Standing at her new desk months later, Rashida thought about the letter that had once broken her spirit. She smiled. If she had stayed staring at that closed door, she would never have walked through this open one.
When her friends came to her with their own disappointments, Rashida told them her story.
“Don’t waste your strength staring at doors that have already closed,” she said. “When it’s done, it’s done. Learn, let go, and look ahead. The next objective is waiting, but it cannot meet you if you’re still holding onto yesterday.”
Her life became a living reminder that endings are not meant to chain us ,they are meant to free us for beginnings. Rashida’s courage became timeless wisdom, whispered from one generation to another:When something is finished, do not mourn forever. Turn, move, and face the horizon. Because the future is not found behind you. It is waiting where you have not yet dared to walk.
Your next objective is calling. Will you answer, or will you waste your strength staring at doors that will never open again?
Go forward. The best of your story is not behind you and it is waiting where you have not yet dared to walk.
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