It is very difficult to forgive someone else if you haven’t forgiven yourself. Do you know the feeling I am referring to, that guilty feeling? It can come from little things we do in our life.
Maybe we felt a brief twinge of guilt because we didn’t hold the elevator door open. Perhaps we took it a step further by hitting the close button rather than open, even when we saw the other party coming. So up we go in the elevator spending the rest of the ride trying to justify our actions to ourselves. “Oh, I really should have held the door, but I was in a hurry.”
We have what I refer to as a “guilt sack” that we carry around in our lives. We take even the smallest mistakes and throw it into our bag. As soon as we toss two or three of those in, then we are carrying this big burden of guilt along with us.
Maybe one of those starts burning. It starts festering and causes us to think about our wrongdoing, which is painful. The distraction of that can cause us to become dysfunctional in our lives. We are no longer able to see clearly ahead.
We then start to scold ourselves for all our mistakes. “I don’t think I should have done that; it was bad. I don’t think that I can ever look that person in the face again. I don’t know if they will ever forgive me. How could I ever do that? I knew better.”
Does that type of thing happen to you? I know it happens to me.
And as it does, we start carrying that burden with us.
Why carry it?
Are you going to focus on the potholes you created on the highway of life, or are you going to move down that highway and enjoy the ride?
Can we do that?
Can we put the past behind us and truly enjoy the ride ahead?
Every mistake that we make carries with it natural consequences.
But do we have to add to the burden of it?
We will accept the consequences of what we have done; we will learn from them; acknowledge our mistakes; and then move on.
Is there anything that you are carrying in your life right now that is a burden to you?
Do you have some past error that still haunts you?
Just ask yourself why you are still holding on, especially if it has been more than a few weeks, months, or even years!
Why are you still packing around a burden that holds you back from becoming the best person you can be?
Mark Victor Hansen, best known as the co-creator of the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ empire (which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling non-fiction book series ever), is a walking success magnet! Between his books and speeches, Mark has helped countless millions of people become their very best. Visit Mark’s 101 E-Book Library at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.
This article has been accessed 10 times since 2007-10-29.
