Forward
As time moves forward, life moves forward. Look up, in front of you is forward. We are made to walk forward; made to see forward; made to think forward; we are forward creatures. Time decays and creates simultaneously, and each creation is stronger than its last.
Tremendous power is just on the other side of death; death physically and figuratively, of an idea, relationship, emotion, and so on. Muscles grow by first tearing. Once torn, they build bigger and stronger than before. The same process takes effect on our emotional endurance. The people who have experienced the most pain have the most to offer. These same people would have nothing to offer if they did not choose to move forward. The ability to move forward is innate in all of us, regardless of the external norms encouraging us to look backwards.
Backward
The only purpose in looking backwards is to build an understanding of how to move forward in the best way possible. We glance in our rear-view mirror to know when we can move forward into the next lane. If you try driving with your rear-view mirror, you would crash for one, and your future will look frightfully like your past.
Where focus goes, energy flows. If you focus on your past, you will repeat your past. We’ve all made terrible mistakes at some point in our lives, it is the only way we grow, but we will go through the pain repeatedly if we choose to make the same decisions. No decision will be exactly the same, but we can train ourselves to spot patterns of our past mistakes resurfacing. A smart thing to do would be to withdraw and understand what caused the undesirable outcome before pointing fingers. Move forward intelligently, and confident that not a single hint of your mistakes will ever find the light of day again.