Sounds counter productive.... If I want to move forward and make progress, I should look back and think about the past. Perhaps the conditions of the past are

Sounds counter productive.... If I want to move forward and make progress, I should look back and think about the past. Perhaps the conditions of the past are no longer relevant to the conditions of the present. Furthermore, I would think that part of the reason why somebody might not be making progress is because they are not paying attention to the conditions of the present while at the same time not reflecting upon the future. However, what you are describing does have it's purposes as I have done exactly what you've suggested above at some point in the past. While this is a good way to reconnect yourself with past positive states (this helps when you are in a funk sometimes), I have not found this useful to move me forward and be competitive against others; to the contrary, it keeps me longing more for familiarity (the past) as opposed to uncertainty (the future) and whatever might result (good or bad).