K - Kicking Yourself? Knock It Off!

Have you ever met someone who’s never made a mistake? Yeah, me neither.  It’s human nature to make mistakes, and while the mistakes we make vary in severity, it’s hard not to beat ourselves up for the times we slip up. It’s fine to be upset initially, but you don’t want to make a habit of kicking yourself when you’re down. What I mean by “kicking yourself when you’re down” is dwelling on your mistakes and refusing to forgive yourself. I am going to list a few helpful tips and tricks below that help me peel my pride off the floor and move on after I make a mistake.

Admit and accept that you made a mistake. The sooner you admit you goofed, the sooner you’ll be able to move on. I know it can be tempting, instinctual even, to lie or place the blame on someone else, but you’ll just be digging yourself a hole. Guilt will take over, and that guilt will keep you from being able to let go and move on.  Yes, making mistakes can be embarrassing, and there may be consequences, but when you admit that you made a mistake you’ll have a clear conscience and feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders—this beats feelings of guilt and shame any day.

Learn from and/fix your mistakes. Once you admit that you made a mistake, you can then take concrete actions to fix the damage, or, at the very least, learn your lesson and move on. Mistakes stop being mistakes once they happen more than a couple times, so I encourage you to learn from them. If there’s any silver lining to making a mistake, it’s that you’ll have learned something! Mistakes help us to grow as a person and learn what not to do again in the future. Use your mistakes as a lesson and learning experience, and embrace the new and improved, wiser you!

Accept that you can’t change the past. No matter how badly we wish we could hop in a time machine and go back to change the past, we can’t. What’s done is done, so there’s no point in worrying about things that can’t be changed. Mistakes happen; you can’t go back in time and change your actions, so accept that fact and focus your effort on repairing any damage that may have been done instead.

Make amends. If your mistake affected another living being, seek them out and make amends. Do what you can to make things right. Admit you were wrong, offer an apology, and be genuine about it. Whether this person chooses to accept your apology or not, you’ll feel better knowing that you’ve done everything you can to make things right. If no one was affected by the mistake you made, then just remember to make amends with yourself and move on.

Like I said in my introduction, everyone makes mistakes—take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone! Don’t continually kick yourself when you’re down, because that only guarantees one thing—that you’ll stay down. The only thing you should be kicking are negative thoughts to the curb, so think before you act, be kind to others, be kind to yourself, and keep moving forward!

“It’s a wise man who understands that every day is a new beginning, because boy, how many mistakes do you make in a day? I don’t know about you, but I make plenty. You can’t turn the clock back, so you have to look ahead.” –Mel Gibson

“Let go of yesterday. Let today be a new beginning and be the best that you can, and you’ll get to where God wants you to be.” –Joel Osteen

“You don’t need a new a day to start over, you only need a new mindset.” –Hazel Hira Ozbek