When you want to punish yourself for poor decisions you made, before you knew they were bad, give yourself a break.
Remember that there was a moment in time when you thought it was right.
And even if you always knew it was wrong, but continued to go on because, after all, it was your choice, give yourself a break.
Whether personally, socially, morally acceptable or not, it must’ve given you something to feel good about if you risked it all (or some) to make room for it in your life. It gave you joy at some point and that moment in time mattered.
When you look back and see how thin the chances were for those poor decisions to make space in your life, you might cringe in utter disdain; you wish you could’ve done something different back then to change the outcome. You could have, if there was such a slight chance. How could life allow such a wrong thing to bloom, right? It’s the biggest mystery. But how could it not? Hands-on lessons are better than theoretical ones.
Understandably, you might feel disappointed, upset, or in disbelief, wishing you had better judgement because (maybe) you knew better. I think we all have those “if I could turn back time” thoughts. But since we cannot, my advice is that you just give yourself a break.
This is definitely a note to self, but it’s also been inspired by hundreds of life stories — of friends and strangers alike — who beat themselves up for the “stupid” decisions they’ve made in their pasts, and I thought it was worth sharing. We all need to hear that it’s actually our nature to be flawed.
Poor decisions sometimes have a colossal impact on someone’s life. You can’t just think about it and not have major regrets; I can understand that. But when that happens, all you can do is give yourself a break. Really. There’s no turning back time. As the saying goes, don’t look back because you’re not going that way.
Life is now.
Always aim to do better and put those lessons learned to good use. The past already passed; what count is the present. But if you stumble again, as it happens with all human beings, remember that all you can do is GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK. Truth is (backed up by life itself) everything we do shapes us in some way.
