The Curse of Memories

Most of what you will do today will be forgotten by tomorrow morning. The reason for this is not because what you did today is insignificant; but because in the grand scheme of things, the breakfast you had the day before doesn’t mean much. Memories can be funny that way.

There are a few important memories that will be etched in our brains forever. These are typically triggered by emotions that get attached to the memory and become stories that we end up telling ourselves. These vivid stories are usually unconnected with the factual event they represent and a lot of times are completely different. It doesn’t matter how far attached these memories are to the real experience. To us these memories are more real than the experiences they represent.

The reason these emotionally charged events become etched as arresting stories is that we replay them when we are faced with similar choices. Whether it’s the death of someone we love, the first kiss, or the first time we spoke in front of a crowd we need to remember so next time we can make better decisions at best or to avoid pain at the least.

So the curse of memories is that we need them to help us navigate the countless decisions we are confronted with every day. It is a learning tool built into us. However, as helpful this tool is, it can also be harmful if the memory and the emotions attached to it cripple us from moving forward. Our decisions are based on analysis of events from the past. If the decision was made based on emotions and not logic, then it can be our Achilles heel.

These subconscious stories can be a powerful reason we don’t achieve the things we want for ourselves. If the story you’re telling yourself is not serving you, you need to come up with a more helpful story.

We are the culmination of our experiences and the stories we have built around those experiences.