Forgiving You
“Everyone makes mistakes”, I’m sure you’ve heard that before. This is not said to make you feel better about the mistake as much as better about yourself having made the mistake. Although often times it works, I want to talk about and help you with the times it doesn’t. First, let me share something someone told me, “You are not your mistake; it’s something you did, it’s not who you are.” It’s important that you believe that!
You’ve made a mistake and the impact may have been enormous, even life altering. Don’t let that mistake define who you are, forgive the mistake and release yourself from it’s grasp. It may have been an action on your part that humbled you to know that you were even capable of making such a mistake. Maybe your mistake was trusting someone that ended up hurting you. Maybe it was you that hurt someone one you loved. Whatever it is, I trust your mistake has served in teaching you a lesson in some way, shape or form. Life lesson learned, it’s time to forgive yourself, let it go and move on.
I’ve identified some steps to help you do that. Although they may take some time to work through, forgiveness is a key to your personal joy and your peace of happy. While you cannot control if someone else forgives you; you can certainly look in the mirror and decide to forgive the person looking back at you.
How To Forgive Yourself For Past Mistakes
Step:
Own it. Regardless of your intent, own your mistake without excuse, confess it out loud.
Acknowledge your feelings about it; sadness, anger, disappointment, guilt, avoidance.
Acknowledge any consequences that came because of it.
Assign new feelings to it – acceptance, repentance, forgiveness.
List out lesson(s) learned from it.
Put it in the proper context as it relates to the current day. “That was (3 years ago, last month, yesterday) when I did that, it is NOT who I am today.”
Forgive the mistake and release yourself from any hold it’s had on how you view yourself and others.
Be the best version of yourself today!
“When you forgive, you in no way change the past – but you sure do change the future.” – Bernard Meltzer
