Glance at the rearview. Don’t drive staring into it.

The past is useful information and terrible navigation. Looking back tells you where the road bent and what you learned from it, but it cannot tell you what is coming, and it will happily absorb the attention the present needs. Most regret is a glance held far too long.

Give the thing you keep revisiting one fixed and honest look, then set it down. Ask what it taught you, write the answer somewhere if that helps, and let that be the use you get from it. When it returns later, and it will, you can note that you already have the lesson.