Everything these days requires a password. From our credit cards to our phones. Isn’t it all too easy to use the same password for multiple accounts? Then you just need to remember the one phrase or number and be done with it. It is already engrained in your memory. It’s not going anywhere, and no matter how tired, excited, or anxious you can get, you will always know THAT password.
But what if that phrase, name, or number is actually holding you back from becoming greater? What if typing in that password unconsciously triggers something you would be better off forgetting? This exact thing happened to me recently.
Sure, over the past couple of years, I have been plugging along. I opened a new business, which I am very excited about, and was involved in some really cool projects, but every day I just felt like I was dragging. And although I had bouts of enthusiasm for sprinkles at a time, I just could not find my Mojo. Where the hell did it go? Were my best years and creativity behind me? How could I survive on the mundane?
I needed a new MacBook recently and was setting things up and when it came time to select a password, it hit me. I had the same password on my older computer that I was using during a period in my life I would be better off moving on from. It was not all bad. In fact, some of it was great but there were some challenges and changes that absolutely needed to be let go of. Every day, whether at home or at the art gallery I own, I was typing in my past. No wonder the Mojo stopped flowing. I was keeping myself from looking forward by constantly looking back. How could I not be crashing into walls? I am lucky I didn’t go off the damn cliff, though sometimes I came awful close. It was the past. I needed to unlock the future.
In a single instant, I created a brand new password. One that reflects the hope and promise of the amazing things yet to come. One that inspires new ideas every time I log in. I also went on to my other devices and changed the passwords there also.
I am no longer walking forward while looking behind me. Go and change that password that is keeping you in the past! Life is too great not to make it fabulous.
This story was originally published on medium.com in 2017. It has been edited for this site.