Recently, highly regarded quarterback Tom Brady was hailed as taking the high road in his departure from the New England Patriots.  When prodded at a press conference, he said, “I don’t want to talk about the past because that’s not relevant to what’s important to my future.” 

Professionally, I have relied on one’s past to predict his or her future.  Behavioral interviewing’s philosophies are just that—past performance predicts future behavior.  If a worker handled situation A in a certain way and then came along a similar situation B, it’s assumed a similar outcome will occur.

I’ll also wager the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are betting on Tom Brady’s past as well.

But I know what Tom means.  This past year and a half, as I look back at some mistakes I made in my life, some over and over, I’ve come up with my own saying, “I can’t change the past.  I can only go forward.”

Whether taking the high road or not looking back, all of this comes down to Choice.  Our lives are a series of choices.  Where to work, where to go to college or not, how to support ourselves, whether to get married, to have children, to travel, to save, to spend. There are also choices in less tangible options—to be patient, to be kind, to forgive, to believe, to trust.

Each moment of our lives is a crossroad—do we act out of love and kindness and patience, or do we act out of fear and anger and jealousy?  Every second we are given a choice.  Choose wisely.

Robert Frost’s blessed poem, The Road Not Taken, reminds us of our constant options.  When I was younger, I thought it referred to obvious choices—which high school to attend, which college, which partner, which job? As I’ve aged, I realize it’s simpler but also more complicated than that—which thought, which stance, which emotion do you want to present to others, and more importantly, to yourself.  Only you truly have to live with yourself.

When you study quantum physics, you learn that energy follows thoughts. What you place your focus on becomes your reality. Wayne Dyer said “Change your thoughts and change your life,” and Mike Dooley reminds us that “thoughts become things.”  These thoughts work in attracting the bad as well as attracting the good.

Fresh out of college, many years ago, I attended a business seminar that said “You have no control over change, but you have control over how you allow change to affect you.”  In Tom Brady’s case, he is embracing the opportunity to continue to work as a quarterback and to be wanted for his skills and his leadership. He is focusing on his future self.

All of these lessons are the same.  We are taught them over and over and over because we choose to not adhere to them.  We project.  We worry. We speculate.  Instead, we need to change our thoughts to how we want our lives to be, not to what we’re afraid our lives will be or could be.

Our thoughts. Something we have power over.  Something that is free.  Something that we can do in the quiet of our minds. Even today, safely six feet apart. 

The world remains our oyster. And always will be if you want it to be so.  Forward. Onward. Happiness abounds.  

What choice will you make today?