Be Easier on Yourself

Hey -

Everybody makes mistakes……you’ve heard that right?

I bet you’ve heard it so many times that you can’t even count it with your fingers anymore.

But there’s a reason why people say that, and here’s why:

I hold myself to a high standard, almost to a point where I feel like I’m never doing enough.

I used to always nitpick my mistakes and wonder why I did what I did and I feel really bad about myself.

What I’ve learned is, this isn’t a productive way to go about mistakes.

Yeah, you’ve messed up. Maybe it was a small hiccup, or maybe it was really bad. So what? What are you going to do about it?

Mistakes are inevitable. You’ll never live your life without making mistakes and if you can’t accept that, then you might have a bigger mental block on your hands.

The key to grow from this stuff is four words…

Learn for next time.

You chalk up the loss and learn for next time.

This is the statement that has kept me from sulking in shame for the last couple of years.

I’m not the smartest person in the world. Even though I graduated with a 4.2 GPA in high school, I’m not academically smart. I still find myself asking even the simplest questions because I can’t wrap my head around what being vegan is. I made a mistake that costed me my relationship. It eats me alive mentally.

I make mistakes every single day. But think of it like this: how much could I really grow if I constantly belittle myself over these mistakes? Hardly.

You don’t make mistakes because you’re a failure or a loser. You didn’t know better. You didn’t understand the actions of your consequences. Life is truly a learning experience, full of seemingly fatal and little mistakes. This makes you human.

taking responsibility and accountability for your mistakes is another part of the journey. It’s imperative that you own up to it, or else you’ll never learn. Feel the guilt, work to make things right, and keep it pushing.

And whether you want to believe it or not, you grew because you made the mistake.

If there’s no next time, then it’s not meant for you.

and that’s perfectly okay.

Don’t feel pressured to accept it now, but try your absolute best to acknowledge that this fact does exist.

everything’s going to be okay. Life goes on. The sun will rise in the morning. Things are going to be okay again in time. Stick around for a while and watch something beautiful happen before your very eyes.

See you soon.

• Ethan