Sitting in a cafe the other day I heard two University students (around 18 or 19 years of age I would guess) get to know each other.

Their main point of reference that they seemed both able to connect to was their A level subjects and grades.

I’ve noticed this before – certainly in first year students – the A level experience seems a very common reference point.

It made me think about how people who move into a new job similarly hang on a little to the past – their old workplace, their ex colleagues, the nature of the work they used to do – and it can take a while to move the language from “we” to “they.”

Understandably, it can take time to bed in to a new job, to feel at home, to really feel as if you belong.

And it’s possibly not just new jobs that this applies to, but new experiences of all sorts.

So I’m curious – what does it take to fast-forward and change your focus from past to future? How helpful is it to look back? Sometimes, always, never?

And what can we take from our past experiences that we can usefully take into what we do next to be able to learn and grow in a new situation?

What does it take to fast forward and change your focus to the future?