Living Backwards: Taking Inspiration from the Past, Present and Future.

Some people always look to the future; moving forward, moving on, living for tomorrow, hoping for a better day. Others are grounded in the present and still others spend a lot of time reliving their past affairs and accomplishments.

Most will agree that living in the present is the most favorable and realistic of the three mindsets; however, there is another way of looking at things that takes all tenses into consideration.  I call this mindset Living Backwards.  One takes inspiration from the past, energy from the present and vision from the future.

I have fond memories of a book that was read to me when I was barely out of diapers. It was entitled The Backward Day by Ruth Krauss.

The Backward Day tells the story of a little boy who decides to live his day backwards. It doesn’t bother to explain why he's taken on such a ridiculous notion, but I remember thinking that I couldn’t care less.

Anyway, this boy gets up and puts on his jacket, shirt and pants. He then puts his underwear on over all his clothes and walks down the stairs backwards. When his parents greet him, he answers with a cheerful, “Good night”. Amused at their son’s creativity, they join in the game and everyone has a delightful day.

There are some interesting lessons to be considered here. One is that routines can get boring, so it’s OK, even acceptable to do something outrageous. Another is that it’s fun to break the rules. Inventing your own rules can be liberating; even life changing.

Some very basic examples of doing things backwards include eating dessert before the main course, or consuming a big breakfast and a small dinner and having sex before you get married.

These activities can be healthful to us physically, but what about thinking in a backward way? Can that have a positive effect on our lives? I say, "Yes, it can". Thinking of oneself as a writer or an actor before one becomes a professional in those fields is not only liberating, it can be conducive to one’s success. Some call this kind of behavior "living into the dream", or something to that effect. In any case, it has been proven to be an effective way of reaching your goals.

As we mature we learn what’s socially acceptable for our culture, but we also get caught up in the system and get trapped by our own self-imposed rules. A lot of those rules are just a bunch of old doctrines that have gone stale and don’t even work for us anymore. It takes courage and self-criticism (that’s a tough one) to break away, but it can be done.

Deciding to do something outrageous may attract some criticism from your friends and family, but personal evolution sometimes requires a big bang on the noggin.

One of my favorite old movies, “Holiday” starring Cary Grant demonstrates the Living Backwards concept perfectly.

“Holiday” is about Johnny, a thirty-year-old man, played by Grant who decides that he would like use what little money he has to take a few years off for self-discovery. Afterward, he'll be ready to settle down to a life of work and responsibility. Johnny feels, 'Why wait until you’re old and sick to retire?'. That’s doing things backwards.

If we can reject conventional employment in favor of independent creative living; telling ourselves that we’re “already there”, perhaps life won’t pass us by, leaving us with a bunch of “what ifs” and “if only’s”.

Go For It

They say that, “Youth is wasted on the young”. If this is true, I say, “Don’t grow up so fast”. No matter how old you are, grab hold of that youthful spirit and natural ferocity and go for it. It may take some bending over backwards, but life happens now and the future becomes a memory in an instant.

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