Last week, I made a mistake. Oh, my intentions were good. The mistake was a complete oversight. But, I felt terrible about it. Ironically, this same week, the excerpt that The WALK THE TALK Company chose to send out from my book was from the chapter titled Welcome Mistakes. In this excerpt, I had written, “The way we choose to respond when others make mistakes can cause them to feel ashamed or can allow them to remember our kindness and share our stories with future generations.”

I thought to myself, “Well, sure, when others make mistakes.” I find it fairly easy to extend compassion to others. However, when it comes to forgiving my own errors, it can be quite painful. After I realized my mistake, those old, mean, familiar thoughts began to pull me down: You’re a failure…

It’s amazing. Really, I don’t get it. I drag my sluggish, tired bones to the gym, get on the treadmill, and begin to lift my lead-filled legs…one-by-one. My internal thoughts generally adhere to a timeline similar to this:

Minute 2: I’m going to die. There’s no way I was able to do this yesterday. It must have been a dream.

Minute 4: Man alive! You’ve got to be kidding me! How long have I been running? At least 20 or 30 minutes.

Minute 9: Seriously?

Last weekend, I had my second book signing. On the eve of both signings, as I was ironing my tablecloths, I had this sneaking suspicion that no one would show up. In my mind, I pictured a signing with my only patrons being my husband, parents, and kids. I thought the whole signing would look like this:

Waiting...waiting...waiting...