Don't hate your past.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Enough that if I paused to think about them I would swiftly stop writing this piece to dive out of a window.
We dwell on mistakes. We let them define who we are. We let them define who we think other people think we are. It um, fucking sucks.
Our past mistakes stop us from taking chances, loving ourselves, loving others and ironically they prevent us from becoming better people.
“If I’m a fuck up/overweight/alcoholic/mean/selfish/etc …
…I guess I’ll always be a fuck up/overweight/alcoholic/mean/selfish/etc.”
But when it comes to cool things, and DAMN I’ve done some cool things, we write those off as a fluke. Something that will never happen again, yet they did! Good things KEPT HAPPENING AGAIN!
I posted this on my INSTAGRAM with pictures. I literally can’t believe this was me. Pictures with Robin Williams who called me his favorite comic (fluke) opening for my Sarah Silverman and Talib Kweli (only happened once) training with former UFC champions (they probably just felt bad for me), playing the Beacon Theater (will never happen again.) performing with Moby, Judd Apatow, Jeff Ross and Weird Al IN THE SAME NIGHT (ok that fucking rules.) and more.
Just more fucking flukes we tell ourselves. Flukes that repeat themselves in some kinda gypsy-like pattern before our life goes back to being bad.
My examples were namedroppy but maybe you have a mountain you climbed, a vacation you never thought you could afford, or something WAY cooler than celebs, like a WEDDING, a BABY, a GRADUATION. POST THAT SHIT! If you tag me I’ll reshare it. We can even hashtag it #thepastcanbegood!
Why can’t we live in those moments and shoot for more? Why are the good things a fluke but every bad thing you ever did somehow defines your entire future? It’s bullshit.
It’s almost like when we focus on the good things, we can bring about, more good things but all the shit piling up in our past pipes prevent it. So we go back to our cruel slutty mistress “mistakes” every time.
Let’s take today and remember we can be badasses. We can do hard things. We can survive. We can love. We can be happy.
If you haven’t checked it out we have a new Mental Health Comedy Podcast called Trauma Bonding with Jamie and Alex and just started a PATREON!