Welcome to The Quiet Rich, your weekly tip for a quiet mind and a rich life.

CONTEXT

It's so easy to romanticize the past, to rewind old memories and replay past choices. But here’s the problem. Every minute you spend living in those memories is a minute you're not creating new ones. The cost of nostalgia is the present moment.

And your brain is such a sly and masterful editor. It cuts out all the parts that didn't work and loops the good parts on repeat. That relationship that ended? You remember feeling desired, not the arguments that left you drained. That job you lost? You remember the wins, not the Sunday Scaries. That city you left? You remember the best days, not the worst.

We don't just replay what was—we torture ourselves imagining what could have been. "What if they had made a different decision?" "What if I had tried harder?" "What if the timing had been different?"

You're writing fan fiction about a life that never existed. And every alternate ending you script in your head is somehow better than the one you're actually living. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” And that is especially true when you’re comparing reality to an imagined fantasy.

The truth is, you can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

The longer you entertain what wasn’t meant for you, the longer you postpone what is. So how do you stop romanticizing the past and start romanticizing your future?

3 practical tips to help turn the page:

METHOD

1. Rewrite the highlight reel in your head

Your brain keeps editing out all the messy, complicated, less-than-perfect realities. Bring more attention to the the compromises that slowly chipped away at who you were. The gut feeling that whispered "this isn't it" long before it ended.

While I don’t want you to dwell in negativity, I do want you to see the full picture—both what was real and what was never going to happen. That way, you can stop glorifying what wasn't actually serving you.

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2. Start building before you feel ready

Don't wait until you're "over it" to create something new. Book the trip. Sign up for the class. Say yes to the coffee date. Start going for long daily walks to clear your head. Send the text to reconnect with that old friend.

Here's the secret: Forward motion creates healing—not the other way around.

You won't wake up one morning magically "ready" to move on. Healing happens in the doing. Each small step forward is proof that you're capable of writing a new chapter.

And that new story? It has the potential to be so much better than the one you keep re-reading.

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3. Ask yourself: "What would I do if I wasn't afraid of forgetting?"

It's easy to cling to the past because we don't want to lose the memories, the person we were, or the love we felt.

But I want to reassure you of something. The best parts came with you.

The person you were back then? Still there. The growth you experienced? Still with you. The capacity you have to love, dream, and create? Still yours.

You don't have to choose between honoring your past and building your future. You can be grateful for what shaped you while also being wildly excited about what's next.

You're not losing anything by making space for what's meant for you.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

There's a psychological phenomenon called the "end-of-history illusion." It's this weird thing where we acknowledge how much we've changed in the past, but assume we'll stay roughly the same in the future.

We look back at who we were five years ago and think, "Wow, I was so different." But when we look forward five years? We can't imagine being anyone other than who we are right now.

And what a tragedy that would be. Your future self in five years has the capability to grow just as much as you did in the past five years—but only if you put in the work.

If you cling to past memories and assume the “good ol’ days” are behind you, you’re denying yourself the time to make new memories now.

This is the moment you decide to turn the page.

Much love,

Jade

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P.S. You can catch up on the last few newsletters at TheQuietRich.co. I wrote a piece about how to be “rich in dragons” two weeks ago that accidentally went viral. It’s all about creating more magic in your day-to-day life.