Cut Yourself Some Slack: One Mistake Doesn’t Define You

If the pros get replayed for every misstep, imagine what we’d see if our own lives were on camera. Maybe it’s time to change the commentary.

I watched a professional football game the other day. A star player for one of the teams made a critical error that contributed to his team’s loss. The TV announcers replayed the play and dissected it as carefully as a brain surgeon operating on a patient. The next day the sports channels repeatedly replayed it. the commentators critiqued the player’s poor performance based on the one play. They didn’t speak about all the other plays he made that kept his team in contention..Sometimes we do this to ourselves. We critique ourselves on a single moment and make it the only moment. All the good we did during the day is ignored. I didn’t have a favorite in this game, but I cut the star player some slack. We all make mistakes. No one is perfect. Learn to love and forgive your imperfections, they are what link us to every other person on the planet.

Have you ever replayed one mistake over and over in your mind? What helped you finally hit pause and move forward?