I recently sent out a Self Care Tip with a bad link. The result was that you, and the hundreds of people who get my weekly tip, were aware that I made a silly mistake. In the past, when making a public mistake, I would beat myself up, spend sleepless nights feeling the redness of embarrassment on my cheeks, and maybe even decide that I couldn't risk making a fool of myself further, so I'd better stop doing whatever I was doing.
I have probably made as many "ooopsies" as others but for some reason, I 
believed I was the only one that regularly stuck her foot in her mouth, walked around with spinach in her teeth, or had the sole of her shoe come loose while on stage speaking to 500 people. My crowning glory "ooops" moment was the day I received the first copy of my book in the mail. I never thought I would ever write a book. The perfectionist in me hired two editors to help me not look like an idiot. Yet, when I opened my book for the first time, I immediately found a typo!
After I picked myself up off the floor and dried my tears, I made a promise to myself to find a way to accept myself as the mistake-prone person I was, and not let my public blunders get in the way of the how I wanted to live. If you are like most of us, and feel the heat of humiliation and embarrassment on a regular basis, these might help:
- Get over yourself - everyone makes mistakes! Just look at political candidates or celebrities. They all have had opportunities to kick themselves for what they have said. There is always the next news cycle. In your life, if anyone notices your blunder, they will quickly forget it when someone else makes one.
- Keep an "Ooops Log" - yours and others. Keep a running list of foibles you've witnessed. Then when you make one, compare it to those on the log. You could even come up with a scoring system and rate each one.
- Give yourself some grace - don't be harder on yourself than you are on others. Even when we try our hardest to get things perfect, we can mess up. Tell yourself what you would tell a friend who is beating herself up over a blunder.
- Laugh it Off - it may be your best laugh of the day. Self-deprecating humor can help you and others get used to the idea that we are all human.
Self care is developing your "art of the ooops"and cutting yourself some slack when you feel foolish, embarrassed, or imperfect like the rest of us!
By the way, wouldn't it be funny if there is a typo in this tip. If you find it, don't tell me!
