Every so often throughout life, we leave behind tiny bread crumbs.  These bread crumbs signify checkpoints, clues, progress reports, or information pertinent to the final making of who we are.  These crumbs are vital.  They are the missing pieces that connect all the dots.

Have you reminisced and tried to understand certain qualities or attributes about yourself?  While trying to figure it out did you ever notice that sometimes, things just make more sense when you look at your life backward?  Yes, I know what you’re thinking.  We live life forward and we shouldn’t have to keep living in our past or looking backward.

But, in order to understand yourself and who you are and where you’re going, you should make the time to analyze your life backward.  What I mean is, look back and pick out those things you once overlooked while living your life forward.  Those crumbs of unfinished business or interests that once peaked your curiosity.  Those “failed attempts” that didn’t work at that moment, but, now that you’re looking at it from a different point of view, might actually be more useful to you.  Sometimes throughout life, we leave ourselves certain gifts or clues that unintentionally end up helping us in more ways than we admit too.

Take myself for instance, I have a very sporadic but sometimes predictable personality.  I easily get bored, and am possibly suffering from ADD.  I constantly strive for change and like to try new things.  I like and am interested in so many things that I dabble in whatever I can get my hands on.  In the past I tried so many different activities and courses and spent so much money taking lessons and workshops to help develop skills I lacked.  For example, I loved graphic design and always wanted to learn about Photoshop, Illustrator and etc. so I self taught through Lynda.com.  I also loved website development and was fascinated with IT so I took courses at school.  My passion is fitness and trying outdoor activities and I generally enjoy physical labour so I volunteered and helped serve food to the homeless and taught classes on wellness and fitness.

No wonder I feel so lost, my attention, skills and pretty much everything is spread out too thin.  I spread myself so thin in the past I couldn’t focus on any one particular thing and master a specific skill and continue actively with the above mentioned activities.  This demotivated me and created failures.  But, that very same attribute I have of wanting to try new things and constantly changing made me gain valuable information that I didn’t even know about until now.  The fact that I tried many things and failed was, actually, a blessing in disguise.  I didn’t know it at the time, but those failed attempts were my baby steps, or practice steps I needed in order to develop myself and my skills.  Had I not tried out those failed attempts then, I would not be closer to being an expert.

In the past few years I utilized my past failed skills to help further propel myself.  The skills I developed from graphic and web design helped me build company websites for the businesses I run.  My time spent volunteering developed my social skills and priorities about what I specifically want to do to help myself and this world be better.  I developed curriculums and utilized my graphic skills to create study and training manuals.  All the things I tried at one point, helped create me.

Time to reflect:

Look inward, have you left certain bread crumbs along the way to help yourself figure out who you are.  I am sure that when you look back at your life, you will be able to see some things about yourself you never noticed before.  Take a few moments to look at what once peaked your interest and analyze some of your past failures.  That course you once took or those mistakes you once made could in fact be a blessing.  If you look, I promise you, you will find your bread crumbs.  You will find those gifts and clues you left behind and they will ultimately help you reach your full potential.  Soooo, what are you waiting for?  Go for it and enjoy the hunt!

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing”. ~ George Bernard Shaw