Idiom for willingly turning your back on the past

Question

I need an idiom to express the action of voluntarily cutting off from the past in a way that you cannot return to that former way of life even if you wanted to. Like an addict voluntarily cuts with his past in order to survive.

I would prefer it to be formal, even literary or outdated, but I would accept any accurate idiom there is. I need it for the context of a man who wants to leave his country for a foreign land to start a new life with no connection with his past, not because he is in danger, but because he wants to change and avoid every connection with his past way of life. He leaves everything behind.

Context:

He left behind all the values of his past: career, family and material goods, wanting to __________ (idiom).

I thought of break free from the past, but the connotation of voluntarily leaving behind things is weak. It's not like his past was a prison, he just wants to change his life, so the idea of escaping is not the best for what I need.

Answer 1

burn one's bridges has the sense of making a drastic change so you can't go back. It often implies doing something drastic or so bad you can never go back, but this isn't essential

Farlex Free Dictionaries says:

1. Literally, to destroy a bridge or path behind oneself, so that others cannot follow. This usage is often related to military action.
2. To do something that cannot be easily undone or reversed in the future (often because one has behaved offensively or unfavorably).

A related idiom, often confused with it, is to burn one's boats: this relates to the practice of people arriving on a new land of burning the boats so they cannot retreat or sail away and must advance: it is often said to originate with the conquistador Hernán Cortés. See Wiktionary. "To Burn One's Boats or to Burn One's Bridges?", Winston A. Reynolds, American Speech, Vol. 34, No. 2 (May, 1959), pp. 95-100 (6 pages), https://www.jstor.org/stable/454373.

The original difference is that burning bridges stops others following, but burning boats stops yourself from going back, but these precise meanings are often not respected (as in Farlex def 2), and burning bridges is a more common idiom for both situations.

Answer 2

You could use:

turn the page:

to make a new start after a period of difficulties.

(Collins Dictionary)

Answer 3

Perhaps make a sea change

a complete change in someone's attitudes or behaviour

Supermarkets have a huge influence on what we eat and will continue to do so until there is a sea change in political thinking on food.

The term appears to be used more literally in Australia.

A sea change is moving away from the hustle and bustle of city life, to a much quieter and relaxed coastal town by the sea. A tree change is moving inland to live in a country town or a place by the mountains.

An Australian career advice blog suggests

A sea change (or tree change) is a drastic change from a city lifestyle and is really about evaluating what’s important to you then improving your lifestyle to achieve a healthier, less stressful environment. It’s about living life to the full and enjoying a more peaceful or meaningful existence. It doesn’t really matter where you go and is often more about downsizing (your house, your income, your expectations, your workload).

Similar to turn the page, one can turn over a new leaf. According to Collins dictionary

If you say that you are going to turn over a new leaf, you mean that you are going to start to behave in a better or more acceptable way.

He realized he was in the wrong and promised to turn over a new leaf.

Alternatively, one can wipe the slate clean

to forget all the things that have happened or been done and start doing something again : to start again from the very beginning

She wishes she could wipe the slate clean and start over in a different career.

Answer 4

• "Lock the door behind you and throw away the key"

It's also the title of a song. The meaning is pretty clear: close a door, make sure that you cannot open it again and forget about it.

• "Walk away without looking back"

This one could work, but is a bit ambiguous and might mean "without regrets".

Answer 5

"...wanting to make a clean break."

According to MacMillan:

A sudden complete end to something such as a relationship or a period of time spent in a place

Answer 6

• to break with one's past

break with something phrasal verb

to stop intentionally doing something that is normal, expected, or traditional

• He left behind all the values of his past: career, family and material goods, wanting to break with it.

Answer 7

There are multiple different phrases that would apply to different parts of the question. No phrase perfectly fits everything mentioned.

"Break free from the past" suggests the person is very actively choosing to change their life, generally in the face of some obstacles preventing them from doing so. This does, to some degree, imply changes that cannot easily be undone.

This would be most fitting to describe an addict moving past their addiction by getting over the obstacles of the physical addiction as well as any negative influences.

This may also refer to "breaking free" from the obstacle of simply being in a rut, or something else that isn't all that extreme.

"Burn bridges" suggests that one makes destructive and generally negative changes (generally by destroying relationships) that would prevent one from returning to how things used to be. This is generally done on purpose, but could also be accidental.

"Cut ties with [the past / everyone I used to know]" refers specifically to ending relationships and cutting off contact, not in a particularly destructive way, but generally in a way one cannot trivially undo.

"Turn over a new leaf" means one is putting most of the past behind you and trying to have a "fresh start" without any elements from your past (or just without the unwanted elements). One could "turn over a new leaf" in a relationship by changing how you interact with the other person, or it may involve moving to a different country, ending relationships, changing jobs, etc. This does not refer simply to making a big change in one's life, but more to changing your perspective or outlook on life (possibly as a result of a big change to one's life).

This does not generally imply that one would be unable to return to how things used to be, but rather that one doesn't want to return.

This seems most fitting for someone moving to a new country to start a new life with no connection with his past, simply because they want to change.

---

If I wanted to describe the situation in question completely, I might combined two idioms, e.g. "Turn over a new leaf and cut ties with everyone I used to know". Or possibly "Break free from the past to [start a new life / make a fresh start]".

Answer 8

He wanted to reinvent himself. OED definition:

reinvent, v.

2. transitive. To adopt a new image or identity for (a person or thing). Usually reflexive: to adopt a new image or identity for oneself; to change one's behaviour in order to respond to a change in environment or react to opportunity.

This could be intensified with completely or totally if desired, to emphasize the profound break with his former life.

Answer 9

Sounds like he's trying for a Fresh Start. According to Macmillan:

a complete change in your way of life or the way that you do things, especially after you have previously been unsuccessful

Answer 10

"Reborn", implying one's old self and life are dead to them, never to be resurrected, yet avoiding any connotations of "born again".

Answer 11

There's lots of great suggestions here, but you could also consider

put the past behind you

It's a fairly direct and literal description of what you're asking for, but it is in common usage and would be understood.

You could also replace 'the past' with a specific thing that's being left in the past. So to use your example:

He wanted to leave the values of his past: career, family, and material goods behind him.

Answer 12

I don't see it here, but what came to my mind was "crossing the Rubicon":

The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" is an idiom that means "passing a point of no return".1 Its meaning comes from allusion to the crossing of the river Rubicon by Julius Caesar in early January 49 BC.

You said:

I need it for the context of a man who wants to leave his country for a foreign land to start a new life with no connection with his past, not because he is in danger, but because he wants to change and avoid every connection with his past way of life. He leaves everything behind.

Julius Caesar went from being a servant of Rome to becoming Rome itself and assuming the mantle of imperialism by declaring himself emperor. He, with a great deal of resolve, fundamentally transformed himself, Rome, and world history. After this event, the notion of the Republic of Rome would never be the same.

Answer 13

He left behind all the values of his past: career, family and material goods, wanting to __________ (idiom).

I would fill in the blank with start from scratch, given its connotations: starting over; self-made, not pre-made; a starting point with no head start, advantage, or handicap; a beginning without benefit of the past.

"Scratching the Surface of ‘From Scratch’: Out of nothing comes something."
Word History [M-W]

Answer 14

wanting to ... "start a new chapter in his life's story, maybe even a whole new book."

Answer 15

One possibility is cut the cord. John Ayto, Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, third edition (2009) has this entry for the idiom:

cut the cord cease to rely on someone or something influential or supportive and begin to act independently. | The image here is of the cutting of a baby's umbilical cord at birth.

A somewhat similar phrase—but one with less of a sense of prior dependence—is cut all ties [with the past], where the image is of severing threads or other connecting materials that bind a person to someone or something else (in this case, figuratively, the past).