The Benefits of (Facebook) ‘Memories’

Oh my gosh, on this day in 2013, not only did I sit down to book a trip to a conference in Boulder and instead wind up booking a trip to Germany, but I reserved a spot for a different conference a few months later in Southern California.

Really? I’m wowed by my globe-trotting self.

Because lately my travel ledger is empty. In the ebb and flow of independent contractor life, I’m just surging out of an ebb. Travel has been on hold. But there is something so satisfying about seeing this travel moment come up in my Facebook Memories.

Lately I’ve been getting a great boost from those “On This Day” posts and in turn encouraging my coaching clients to pay heed to them. They remind us when times were worse or better, how long we’ve been complaining about the same things, how much joy we get from things like art exhibits and absorbing books, and even that nice observation someone made about us.

So often we seek our motivation or inspiration from external sources — not that there’s anything wrong with that — but Facebook Memories can be a powerful tool to self-motivate because it shows us how we’ve been living and what we’ve done that felt special.

Sure, sometimes you’re going to see how angry you were at current events at the time or cringe at how overly clever you were trying to be in…