Let’s Go Back to the Future!

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Michael J. Fox…a legend no doubt!  If I had to look at his many accomplishments, I would undoubtedly name his ‘Back to the Future’ movies as some of his best.  While possibly a little cheesy for the newest generation, I always liked this idea of cause and effect.  Of making sure that each detail happens the way it needs to in order for a certain future to unfold.  Call me crazy, but I love those kinds of stories!  And just a couple of weeks ago, I felt just like Michael J. Fox did in that movie.  I instantly felt myself go back in time (but of course without the cool car).

It was a sunny and beautiful Sunday morning.  I had decided to go to church that particular day to see what I could learn.  And as I listened to Pastor Mark give his incredible sermon, I was instantly taken back in time….

On this one particular morning, he started talking about “sincerity” …which can be such a loaded word.  Well that is until Pastor Mark broke it down about as simply as I had ever heard it before.  So what really does sincerity mean?  He went on to describe that it is simply this: To always say what you mean and mean what you say…that’s it!  So easy, right?  

Or is it?

And that’s when I went right back…I went all the way back…to middle school…

Yes…awful middle school…there is no other way to describe it.  It’s probably the only time in my life that I really don’t want to relive…No, Thank You!  And it’s not because I didn’t have amazing friends (they are still my friends today).  And it’s not because my family life was tough…because it wasn’t.  It’s simply because middle school is such a difficult time in life for all young children.  

So that morning in church, I went right back to that complicated time.  Those feelings of awkwardness, of trying to find your place, of learning about who you are and who you want to be, of understanding that life isn’t always perfect.  Middle school requires us to learn to deal with drama and figure out how to navigate through it as best as we can. 

And in that moment, it all came flooding back.   I was remembering times with my friends where we would gang up on each other and leave some of us out.  I remember the back-stabbing and the fighting.  I remember the hurt feelings and the sadness that typically comes anytime we feel we lost all of our friends during one of those fights.  I remember not being so innocent either as I was on the giving AND receiving end of many of those arguments.  But mostly, what I hate about my middle school years is that it was a time in my life that I developed a trait that I have worked so hard to overcome.  I lost a part of my sincerity during those years.  Sure, I was a pretty considerate child, and yes, I wanted to always make people happy, but that didn’t stop me from talking behind my friends’ backs. It didn’t stop me from not being honest with them about things I said or how I felt.  

So when I think back to that little girl in middle school, I am disappointed in her. And I wish she would have learned, as a small child, to do better…to be better.  I wish that little girl would have learned early on to always try hard to say what she means and to mean what she says. 

But she didn’t…and unlike Michael J. Fox, she can’t go back and change that…I couldn’t change it. 

So my journey moved forward in church that day, but I realized that my time travel wasn’t stopping there because in my next thought, I was suddenly sent forward and into the future…

And as I describe this moment, I want to take you into the future with me…

When life is all said and done…when you are no longer here, I want you to think about these next questions: What type of person do you want to be known for?  When others think of you, how will they remember your interactions with them?  Do you want to be remembered as sincere?  Do you want to be known as genuine?  Do you want to be the type of person that people know they could trust?  Is it important to you to be remembered in this way?

If so, then it’s time to leave the future and come back to the here and now.  Let’s travel back to the present…to today…and let’s be real about how we are going to accomplish this.  We need to figure this out together because if you too understand and believe in this idea of cause and effect, then in order to get our future to unfold the way we want, we have to make some changes right now.

I am going to ask you some tough questions, and you don’t have to answer out loud if you don’t want to.  The important part, instead, is to answer truthfully, even if it’s just to yourself.

Did you grow-up and evolve from those middle school years, or do you find yourself still talking behind people’s backs?  When someone shares a gossip tip, do you gossip right back?  If someone important in your life is not around, will they know exactly what you would say about them, or does that conversation look much differently than they would expect?  Do you say it like it is, or would others say you are two-faced?  

If the answers to these questions are not what you had wanted, that’s okay.  Don’t lose faith and never give up hoping that the future can be different.  Because while none of us can be Michael J. Fox with a cool car taking us back in time (to even yesterday), we do still have a chance at the future.  We have the ability to make an effect on the days to come with what our actions will be today.  But there really is only one way to do this, to make sure that we are genuine, to make sure that we are sincere with all those in our life.  We need to make sure we always work hard to say what we mean, and we need to mean what we say.  That’s it!!  That’s all we need to do!!  It’s pretty simple, really…

Xoxo

Marsha

*For those of you struggling with something in life or have a topic of interest that you want me to talk about in this blog, email me at BeYourBestSelfBlog@gmail.com.  Let’s work together to Be Our Best Selves!

Photo Credit    Photo by Maria Tyutina: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-vintage-car-s-dashboard-7409808/