Some people have quiet, brief, under-their-breath conversations with themselves. I yell. I mic my voice and shout at myself. Usually, I replay a situation I fumbled in and start aggressively sideline coaching myself: “Don’t ever do that!“, “Fall back!“, etc.

Today, I had a shouting episode at myself.

It was one of those Monday mornings. New client. Unfamiliar location. Got lost. Dead phone. Dead laptop. No chargers. Nothing went right.

The moment I got a second to myself I started a self-inflicted rant. “GET YOUR LIFE TOGETHER! RIGHT NOW!” I was so mad at no one but myself. Eeeek!

Then, this great thing called grace was extended to me. It came from my senior. He found me in the building with a grin and a “Pleased to meet you.” There was no condemnation about my tardiness or dead laptop or anything. He simply kindly greeted me.

His response made me think. Why exactly is it that a stranger is more kind to me than I am to myself? Why can a stranger extend more grace to me than I can to myself?

Those thoughts led me to this: I don’t wanna yell at myself anymore. Well, I don’t wanna shout words of condemnation at myself anymore. I wanna shout words of love, exuberance, affirmation, encouragement, laughter and even reasonable critique.

Do you ever do crazy bully beat downs on yourself? (Hopefully, I’m not the lone crazy ranger.) Send me a note (theambini@gmail.com) or leave a comment.

Hope this helps!

Ambini