Friday, November 13, 2015

Be Kind To Yourself



So often in life we beat ourselves up for our perceived mistakes. We know that we are not perfect, but somehow we still try to live to that standard. When we do something that has a "bad" result, we tend to replay that event in our minds over and over wondering if we could have done it differently and what would have happened if we had. It is an exercise in futility. 

I believe that we are all doing the best we can given our nature, experience and personality. Could we do things better - sure. But we are all works in progress. The important thing is to learn from our experiences. Sometimes so-called "mistakes" can be catalysts for our greatest successes.

When you feel bad about something that you have done, try to learn something from that experience that you can use to improve your life in the future. Forgive yourself for the results and do something with the knowledge you gained from the experience. Feeling bad about yourself won't help anyone, least of all you. It won't help anyone who you think may have been hurt by your actions either. Even if you can't correct a situation where others were hurt by your actions, you can do something today that can improve someone's life. Do something today to make someone else's day better and see if that doesn't make you feel better about yourself.

I love what Maya Angelou says on the subject. "Do the best you can. Then when you know better, do better." Doing our best is all we can ever do. If you don't think you did your best yesterday, do your best today!

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