I am a big fan of Kane Brown and his music. He has a song called, “For my daughter” where he discusses raising his daughter. As someone who grew up without a father, he talks about the decisions he can make as a father himself. He discusses how many people who grew up without a father do not become a good father themselves, but he is determined to break that cycle.
One line in the song kept repeating in my mind: “They say history repeats itself. Well, I guess that’s up to me.”
I think so often that the voices inside of our heads try to remind us of the mistakes we have made in the past. We can get into this cycle where we think that history is going to repeat itself. For example, if we made a mistake in the last competition, our minds may be telling us that we are just going to do that again. If we missed our last free throw, we are just going to miss this one, too. If we threw a ball instead of a strike, we are going to keep throwing it. The list can go on and on.
Our ever resounding self-talk can sometimes remind us of things in the past even if it was something that just occurred in the same competition.
The truth is that we do have the same ability as Kane Brown. If our minds are trying to tell us that we are going to make the same mistake again, we can talk back to it and let that self-talk know, “It is up to me.”
When it comes to things that have happened in the past or as the song says part of our history, it is not anything that we can control. As far as I know, time travel has not been invented, so we cannot go back and change something that our minds are reminding us of. What you can control, though, is how you move forward. That is the part that is still up to you.
If you find yourself in a cycle of thinking about past mistakes, talk back to that negative self-talk affirming that you are the one who can determine if history is going to repeat itself.