Here is an excerpt from a Steve Jobs commencement speech to a Stanford graduating class on June 14, 2005:

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

For me, it's trusting in God. Once that is put in there, this is a perfect quote. Sometimes it's so hard to see the mistakes you make as you are making them. Sometimes, it just takes time to realize what's going on and other times people can just tell you. No matter what, you and I have to connect the dots in our past and not try to figure out how we can try to make them connect in the future.