"I want people to know that it's OKAY to be themselves. And they aren't the only ones in the world that feel stupid, or not good enough, or lonely, or depressed. They are not the only ones who get angry or experience rage or get pissed off, and that there is a way to be human." ~Debbie Ford

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Not Easy to Admit

The quote above can be hard to swallow. It's difficult to admit that being human sometimes means doing things we would rather not acknowledge that we do. We all have our secrets that we hide from others (and sometimes ourselves.)

Whether bad habits or past mistakes, they get in our way. They eat away our self-esteem and make it difficult to be consistent, productive, supportive, or happy. Of course, those are the things that help us be the kind of parents we want to be, the kind that our complex kids need.

While we may ask ourselves, "Can I still be a good mom if I yell...if I forget things...if I don't have all the answers?" here's the truth. We all have our dark shadows! Out of the seven billion people on our planet, at least a few dozen – probably thousands – have experienced whatever you are beating yourself up about right now. Other people get mad and scream at their kids, get fired, are depressed, or stay in bed all day and eat an entire jumbo bag of M&Ms without thinking. We have all experienced these things at some point! Some of us have done them all at the same time!

Some people roll with the punches, able and willing to keep trying and moving forward despite their secrets. Others of us carry them around like 100-pound weights.

Whether we can look at ourselves and our mistakes with compassion & understanding or with shame & guilt makes all the difference in our lives. Both of these are reasonable perspectives that we could choose to embrace or not. The critical word here is choice. Choosing to show yourself compassion – not to beat yourself up – is a choice you can make. We know from working with our kids that they usually respond better to the carrot than the stick. The same is true for us.

Keep Moving Forward

It's time to put down the stick, stop asking yourself if you can still be a good mom if... and move forward when you don't respond the way you want to. Here are some hints that can help:

• Be your own best friend. "If we treated our friends the way we treat ourselves, we would all be in jail." Our friends aren't perfect. They make mistakes, miss appointments, and get mad for no seeming reason, and we still love and forgive them, even when they wrong us.
• Forgive yourself. Whatever it takes. Humans make mistakes. We all do. Some of us over and over again. We all know relationships don't survive when grudges and hurt feelings exist. The same goes for our relationship with ourselves. It's no wonder it can be hard to be your own best friend.
• Be willing to consider that you did the best you could at that moment. If you can do it differently the next time, you will! This is hard to embrace, but just being willing to consider it can sometimes be enough of a shift to move you forward.

So that's the secret: we all have secrets. Because I hold the bar really high for myself, I have to remind myself of this every day. Maybe you do, too. Let's continue to remind each other and pass on a legacy for Debbie and all the other people out there ready to put down those 100-pound weights and enjoy life a little more.