Re-filing the Past

We often think of time as three filing cabinets: one for the past, one for the present, and one for the future.

It seems obvious that files from the past belong in the past cabinet. But somewhere along the way, most of us make a serious filing error: we take files marked past and slip them into the cabinet marked future.

So when we look ahead, the cabinet we expect to hold possibility is already crammed full of history. Little by little, we’ve been filling our future with our past—leaving no room for what could be.

The breakthrough comes when we notice this error. When we take the past out of the future and return it to its rightful place. Only then does the future become truly empty—ready to be created.