Prompt #13: Incredible + Rough

Hello Writers and Journalers,

Today’s two-word prompt is Incredible and Rough. As we move into the weekend with journaling on the horizon and maybe more time and space to get into a deeper mindset or deeper introspection in your journaling pages, I want to check in with you and make sure that you understand the difference between beating yourself up and taking responsibility.

This may not apply to you. That’s fine. Move on. Get to your journaling. Have a great weekend (all said with a smile and best wishes).

If it does apply to you, and you find yourself in a loop in your journal where you beat yourself up about past mistakes, or about things that you have done that made you look less intelligent than you are, or less thoughtful or kind than you are – maybe you actually did some damage, or you just embarrassed yourself or you just screwed things up – and you just cringe thinking about it, but you can’t stop writing about it. Stop.

If your journal feels like it’s on repeat, where you talk sh#t about yourself say things like, “I’m so stupid, I’m so dumb, why did I do this? I always do this …” Stop. Please, just stop.

That is beating yourself up. It serves no one. It does you no good, whatsoever. You think that’s how you learn? Nope. You learn through taking responsibility.

Taking responsibility begins with stating clearly what happened, what your role was, how you feel about that – especially if it’s uncomfortable – and then checking in with what you could do differently next time. And do you need to apologize?

That’s how you begin to take responsibility. That’s how you grow. That’s how you learn.

That’s how you move forward.