Never Go Back

The Science, Faith, and Philosophy Behind Letting Go for Good

We all wish we could undo something—say the right thing, take a different turn, save what we lost. But what if the urge to go back is the very thing keeping us stuck?

The Illusion of Fixing the Past

It was only two hours. I had logged time under the wrong project code and wanted to adjust my timesheet. When I told my supervisor, he looked at me with quiet intensity and said, “Never go back.” I didn’t fully grasp it then. It seemed excessive—dramatic even. But years later, I realized it was the most important lesson I took from one of the most prestigious architecture firms in the world.

“Never go back” wasn’t about timesheets. It was about life.

So many of us believe that if we could just rewind and fix that one moment, things would be right again. But life doesn’t work like a video clip we can re-edit. We imagine alternate versions of ourselves and our stories, but in doing so, we often miss the one we’re actually living.

From Ancient Salt to Superhero Speed

In the Bible, Lot’s wife looked back at the burning city she was told to leave—and instantly turned to a pillar of salt. It wasn’t the fire that consumed her. It was the inability to let go. She didn’t just disobey; she got stuck. Frozen in regret.

In the DC Universe, Barry Allen—the Flash—has the power to run faster than time. He uses it to go back and save his mother’s life, believing it’s the one thing that will make everything right. But by changing the past, he distorts everything else. Instead of healing, he fractures timelines. He learns the hard way that even the purest intention can wreak havoc when it’s chained to regret.

Whether myth, scripture, or comic book, the theme remains: going back doesn’t guarantee resolution. It often leads to unraveling.

The Physics of Forward Motion

Time, according to physics, has a preferred direction. Entropy—the second law of thermodynamics—says that systems tend to move from order to disorder. In other words, the universe flows forward. Trying to reverse time is not just impossible for us—it’s unnatural to everything we exist within.

Psychologically, we’re wired for forward movement too. Studies in cognitive behavioral therapy have shown that rumination, or obsessive reflection on the past, increases anxiety and depression. But when we practice present-moment awareness, our brain chemistry literally changes. Cortisol drops. Dopamine rises. We feel more alive—not because we’re controlling time, but because we’re finally in sync with it.

Letting Go Isn’t Loss—It’s Liberation

You don’t need to fix the past to move on. You just need to stop staring at it.

Mistakes are not defects in your story; they are the very soil in which wisdom grows. The beauty of time is that it only ever moves in one direction. And when we honor that motion—when we walk forward, eyes open, heart steady—we align ourselves with something far more powerful than perfection: purpose.

Today is already becoming yesterday. Don’t waste it trying to make up for something that was never meant to be rewritten. Let it be. Let it teach you. And then let it go.

The most transformative choice you can make isn’t to rewind time. It’s to trust that nothing behind you is greater than what’s ahead.

Closing Thought

You were never meant to be a curator of the past. You were meant to be a creator of the present. The moment you stop looking back is the moment you finally begin.

“The moment you release the past like a balloon, you make space to rise too.” 

– Vanessa Liu