In my early years doing counselling and recovery, I met a young lady that I'll simply call Tara. Tara had no idea her life had any value. She told me she felt completely worthless. Tara was living her life dangerously on the edge, engaging in a variety of dangerous and risky activities. When I asked her, "Do you know that you still have a great opportunity to make the most out of your life?" She looked at me as if I was insane and whispered quietly, "My life means nothing to me or to anyone else. It ended a long time ago. I am just waiting to go be with my maker."

Like Tara, I have encountered many who live consistently in the basement of their lives because of what might have happened to them as children, how they were raised or the losses they have suffered. They are paralyzed by events that they had absolutely no control over in the past and cannot fix in the present. And even though the past is dead and gone, it continues to live on in the recesses of their minds. Now, I want to be absolutely clear that I am not minimizing painful experiences but the truth is if we allow the past to control our present, we have made the ultimate decision (consciously or unconsciously) to allow the past to bleed into our futures and ultimately destroy it.

Do you believe you have great potential? Do you look at yourself in the mirror and see tremendous value? If you don't recognize your personal value, it's time to begin seeing yourself differently. How we see ourselves matters way more than how others see us. If we choose to see value in who we've been created to be, the world opens itself up to us. Our lives mean more than the negative experiences we may have had. Let's move past all the things that happened in the past. It's time to let all those negative things go so we can move into a brighter future. Letting go isn't about having the courage to release the past; it's about having the wisdom to embrace the present (Steve Maraboli).

Believe that you are good enough, smart enough, pretty enough to move past the hurts of the past. Regardless of what might have happened to us in life, we have value. Make the effort to invest in your recovery to guarantee your ability soar and reach new heights.