If you’re running late, being stressed and driving too fast isn’t going to help.
If you forgot someone’s birthday, message them with a belated message, they’ll be glad to hear from you.
If you screw up at work, rectify the situation, say sorry and move on.
Stop beating yourself up all the time. You’re not perfect. Being angry, or stressed, or worried isn’t going to change the situation. Accept it, learn from it, let it go.
We learn from our mistakes, if you never make any you must be pretty awesome or you’re just not noticing them! I used to spend weeks remunerating on mistakes… especially work ones. I rarely make them now, but when I do the easiest way to get over it is to say ‘yep, my mistake, sorry about that’ and move on. Will beating yourself up help? No. Will worrying about it help? No. The event is in the past, it’s over! Unless you invent a time machine there’s absolutely nothing that you can do to change it. It’s happened already.
I find that when this happens you’re likely to be the only one worrying about it. Everyone else will have moved on.
There are loads of other situations that might make you feel stressed or upset. You need to recognise the ones that you can affect and the ones that you can’t.
You’re worried that someone won’t like something about you or something you’ve done. Can you affect what that person is feeling? No. So let it go. Be more confident in yourself.
You’ve got anxiety over a meeting or event. You’ve built up a horrendous picture in your head about what it’s going to be like. But those thoughts in your head aren’t fact and you won’t know what it’ll be like until you’re actually experiencing it. So take a breath, get your coat on and go. It might be awesome!
Learn to let go of the things that you can’t control. Stop worrying if you’re good enough. Be present and live as fully as you can. Life is amazing. Yes, it has its ups and its downs. You can’t control everything, but you can learn to experience them without fear.
Jaime Stenning - a life uncut 