Whenever you have an experience, a memory of it follows. The experience may have been a product of the activity of your intelligence, but the memory is passive. Think of a waterfall and a picture of the waterfall: the waterfall is dynamic; the photograph is passive.
The growth-directed individual lives with an active intelligence, but there is a tendency in us; after some positive experience, to dwell on the memory of it-passively coasting. The memory has a value when used as a tool by the intelligence. But in itself the memory is not a dynamic experience; even through it may recall the emotions we felt in the actual experience.
If you find yourself dwelling on memories, turn your mind to the present and put in effort to create a new experience now. Goethe phrased this well when he stated that we must create our existence anew each and every day. Activate your intelligence: Begin again in the now and go toward the future; leave the past alone, no matter how wonderful. If you attempt to learn something from it for the sake of the future then you are using it as a tool. Disengage yourself from the past; turn your mind to the reality of the now: Go ahead! If you do not succeed, begin again; beware, do not let the lack of instant results deter you: You gain something within yourself by the very effort itself.
We feed ourselves by our efforts; therefore, we are never really fed by anything external to us to which we respond passively. We are truly fed and fulfilled by the continuously new, renewed and stronger efforts that we apply in any experience. Then we learn that real confidence comes from the fact that we have gained the ability to apply ourselves to every experience or problem we face.
Lewis
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