So many people forgive others, but for some reason, cannot seem to forgive themselves for things they have done in the past. If you find yourself in this position, I would like to share with you 4 simple steps that, I hope, will help you get started on forgiving yourself today.
Step 1: Accept
Are you still blaming yourself for what happened years or months ago? To be able to forgive yourself, you must first accept whatever happened and acknowledge you made a mistake, a slip up, a mess up… that’s all it is. Everyone makes mistakes, right? Of course, you wish you could take it back, but you cannot, so no reason to dwell on it. The real mistake is to allow it to burden you.
Step 2: Move Forward
If something reminds you of your mistake, do you get that funny feeling in your stomach? If so, STOP it! 🙂 How? As soon as you start to feel guilty, force yourself to immediately change your thought process. Convince yourself there is absolutely no benefit from reminding yourself of the pain that you messed up. Sure you can always remember the lessons you learned, but feeling guilt is not productive one bit.
Step 3: Learn From It
If you haven’t already done this, take a few minutes to figure out the lessons you need to learn from your mistake. Why did you make the mistake? What led to it? How could it have been prevented? How can you prevent making the same/similar mistakes? Remember the reason you ask these questions is to identify a lesson and not as another opportunity to beat yourself up.
Step 4: Allow Room for Future Mistakes
Nobody is perfect. We’re prone to making mistakes. To think that you’ll never make another mistake is unrealistic. If you are paranoid, you may allow your past mistakes to hinder you from reaching your potential in life today. Remind yourself that mistakes are learning experiences, so it’s not the end of the world if you make another mistake.
In my opinion, one of the biggest differences between successful and unsuccessful people is how they deal with their mistakes and failures. Unsuccessful people get stuck and never get past their mistake or failures. Successful people view mistakes as learning opportunities.
Do you want to be successful? Life is a learning process, Grow with it. Do you need more help? We recommend How to Forgive Yourself.