What is your recovery rate? How long does it take you to recover from actions and behaviors that upset you? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? The longer it takes you to recover, the more influence that incident has on your actions, and the less able you are to perform to your personal best. In a nutshell（簡(jiǎn)單地）, the longer it takes you to recover, the weaker you are and the poorer your performance.

You are well aware that you need to exercise to keep the body fit and, no doubt, accept that a reasonable measure of health is the speed in which your heart and respiratory（呼吸的） system recovers after exercise. Likewise the faster you let go of an issue that upsets you, the faster you return to an equilibrium1（均衡，平靜）, the healthier you will be. The best example of this behavior is found with professional sportspeople. They know that the faster they can forget an incident or missed opportunity and get on with the game, the better their performance. In fact, most measure the time it takes them to overcome and forget an incident in a game and most reckon a recovery rate of 30 seconds is too long!

Imagine yourself to be an actor in a play on the stage. Your aim is to play your part to the best of your ability. You have been given a script and at the end of each sentence is a full sTOP. Each time you get to the end of the sentence you start a new one and although the next sentence is related to the last it is not affected2 by it. Your job is to deliver each sentence to the best of your ability.

Don't live your life in the past! Learn to live in the present, to overcome the past. STOP the past from influencing your daily life. Don't allow thoughts of the past to reduce your personal best. STOP the past from interfering3 with your life. Learn to recover quickly.

Live in the present. Not in the precedent4（在前的）.