Forgive yourself

I have done a huge amount of public speaking in my day.  Sometimes there are thousands in the audience.  Other times it is just a couple of dozen.  And in the old days, it use to make me nervous as heck.  Then one day I woke up and realized, I can’t live like this…nervous all the time.  It was at that moment that I decided to forgive myself.  If I screw something up during a speech, during a TV or radio appearance…I forgive myself.  I am committed to living in the present and the future and I see absolutely no profit in carrying forward my mistakes of the past.  Remember them for learning purposes…OK. Dwelling on them and feeling remorseful…ain’t going to happen.  I forgive myself. End of story.

Forgive yourself.  You can’t change the past.  Whatever happened…happened.  If you still need to apologize to someone for the mistake you made…man or women-up and apologize sincerely…and be done with it.  If you made a mistake, admit the mistake to those you should, apologize and be done with it.  Forgive yourself.  We all screw up…it’s just another part of life.

If getting up in front of a big group scares the heck out of you, try my little trick.  Know in advance that anything that goes wrong is something you will forgive yourself for doing.  And mean it.  And then, if necessary, do just that…forgive yourself.  Next time around, the whole process will seem much less stressful.

And to show you exactly how easy it is to forgive yourself…I want to do this publicly.  The photo in this blog is of my father-in-law, Bill Collins.  I may have doctored the photo a bit in Photoshop and I am now posting it for the world to see.  And…I completely forgive myself for doing so.  See how easy it is.

Hope that helps.