Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Do you think it’s worse to constantly dwell in the past, or constantly worry about the future?

I think it’s perfectly to second-guess decisions that you’ve made or actions you’ve taken. Likewise, it’s our ignorance of the future that instills worry within us.

Spending too much time on either of these can be self-destructive if you take it to obsessive levels. I’ve been batting this topic around for the last several hours, and I’ve come to the conclusion that of the two, worrying about the future is worse then dwelling on the past.

Don’t be like uncle Rico

In the 2003 movie Napoleon Dynamite, we meet Napoleon‘s uncle, Rico. Uncle Rico is introduced to the movie to babysit Napoleon and his older brother Kip. As we get to know uncle Rico, we realize he is constantly haunted by memories of the past. Over and over again, he keeps saying “ if I would a state championship, everything would be different.

Rico‘s obsession with his high school football career is played for laughs in the movie . However, the truth is that Rico is a character who is stuck in the past. There is even a small sub plot where Rico tries purchases a “Time Machine” in – desperate attempt to change his past!

A deer in the headlights 

I say that worrying about the future is worse than dwelling on the past because worrying too much about the future might cause someone into a state of an action. They might get the “deer in the headlights“ look on their face and freeze up when the time comes to make a decision or take a particular course of action. Rather than choosing either the right thing with the wrong thing to do, they ought to do nothing. When we as humans do nothing, we remain static.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Acknowledge Me: The Simple Art of Being Seen
• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision

The article article “second-guessing the past versus worrying about the future” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob