By Rusty Potter
This past Labor Day weekend, several class reunions were held across our area. Old classmates gathered together, laughed, shared old memories, took pictures, and talked about the good old days. For many, it had been years since they had seen one another.
Class reunions have a way of making you reflect.
You look around the room and remember who people were in high school. You remember the athlete, the smartest student, the quiet person, and the person everyone believed was destined to do something great.
Then, after the hugs and laughing, another question sometimes enters the conversation: “So, what have you been doing?”
Years have passed. Lives have been lived. Some dreams have become reality, while others remain only dreams.
And sometimes, silently, people begin thinking about the things they could have accomplished.
“I could have gone to college.”
“I should have started that business.”
“I would have pursued my dream, but life got in the way.”
Could have. Should have. Would have.
These three phrases can become painful when we spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror.
The truth is, we all have potential. The question is not whether we have it, but whether we are using it. Too many people go through life holding back their gifts, ideas, talents, and dreams. They wait for the perfect time. They wait until they have more money, more confidence, or more support.
But one day, they look up and realize that years have passed.
That is why you cannot afford to keep holding back.
You may not be able to change what you did not do yesterday, but you can still decide what you will do today. As long as you have breath in your body, you still have an opportunity to begin again.
The Bible says in Philippians 3:13, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”
Don’t allow your life to become a collection of regrets.
Don’t wait until the next class reunion to wonder what might have happened if you had taken a chance.
Start now. Use your gift. Pursue the dream. Take the class. Write the book. Start the business.
Quit holding back.
Because the worst words to carry into your future may be these:
“I could have. I should have. I would have” can become the story you tell about your life.
