As we move into another new year, we begin to look back on what we have been through with hindsight. We may have this feeling we wish we could have done better.

Hindsight is a good thing to have, but only when it helps you to move forward in bettering yourself for future events and trials. Hindsight is not useful when we start wishing things were better than what they had been.

We can’t dwell on what has been, or maybe not been, in the past and start wishing things were different. It doesn’t do us any good. The guilt of messing something up can eventually eat away at us like a bird pecking at it’s dead prey.

What we can do is reflect on what has happened and focus in a positive way what we could have done differently. Trying to understand what we have been through, where situations went wrong, and what could have been different gives us the wisdom to make better decisions in the future.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

This was written for the Five Minute Friday Community, where a number of writers gather for a weekly writing challenge around a single word prompt and write to our hearts content, but only for five minutes (or there abouts).

This weeks word prompt is ‘better’. Click here if you want to see what other people wrote. You can also have a go yourself. What do you think of when you hear the word ‘complete ’?