Guess what? You messed up.
Not ten years ago. Not last year. Not last month. You messed up right now. Today. 5 minutes ago. The worst part? It’s not the first time. It’s not the second time. It’s the millionth time. The millionth time you set a goal and failed. The millionth time you gave in to your addiction. The millionth time you set out to do something, but you didn’t.
You messed up… AGAIN.
You’ve been in the same situation many times before, yet you made all of the same mistakes. It was time for you to make a choice. You said you were going to learn from your previous failures. You said: “Next time is going to be different.” But it wasn’t. When it was time to act differently, you didn’t.
You made a wrong decision… AGAIN.
You trusted the wrong person. You betrayed someone’s trust. You got too attached to someone, too soon. You acted like an asshole. You were needy and insecure. You stayed in a toxic relationship. You were scared to move on. You spend too long trying to get over someone. You acted in a way that completely disgusts you when you look in the mirror.
You messed up. AGAIN!
You decided it was time to better your life. You set goals, worked out a schedule, and sketched up a to-do list. You said you were going to wake up early tomorrow. You said you were going to go to sleep earlier. You said you were going to own your goals and finally achieve what you set out to… starting tomorrow. So what went wrong?
You messed up TODAY.
You gave into your anxiety. You started overthinking and overanalyzing everything. The emoji some girl used in her text. Whether that guy you like saw your Instagram story. What is the point of life anyway? Why are we all here? You know this is just a phase. You know worries and questions like this only come in moments when you’re avoiding dealing with a problem. You’ve been in this situation a million times and you vowed that next time, you were going to react differently.
You gave into your anxiety… AGAIN!
You said you were going to be less angry. You said you were going to complain less. You decided you were going to surround yourself with better people and be nicer to your family and friends. Yet, you fought with them again. Over bullshit. Over unimportant things. You got worked up. You yelled and lost your temper. You regretted it moments later.
You messed up. AGAIN!
You said you were going to stop searching for answers online. Most of the time, you know you won’t find what you’re looking for, you’re only going to find extreme cases. You promised yourself you’re going to follow a plan to actually change yourself, rather than just seeking validation and encouragement. You said you weren’t going to just keep reading motivational articles to make yourself feel better.
You messed up. You messed up again. And you will mess up again.
That’s pretty much what life is: You make choices, screw up, then try to make better choices. Rinse and repeat. But in order to make better choices, you need to realize you made a bad choice in the first place. Not only that, you need to understand why that choice was bad and what you could have done differently. But before you can do any of that, you need to admit to yourself that:
You messed up… AGAIN.
Yes. A millionth time. A millionth mistake. The same mistake you made countless times before. Good. Let it hurt. Let it burn deep. Let that pain crawl deep inside your and take a shit on your soul. You deserve it. You messed up. There’s no running away from it. There’s no pretending they didn’t happen. There’s no “making yourself feel better” to avoid feeling this way.
You messed up. It’s time to own it.
Honestly, you should know better by now, but that’s fine. This is your Day Zero. This is your rebooting. This is another time when you decide “Enough is enough!” and start planning your comeback. This time, it really is going to be different. It’s going to be different because, this time, you are ready to admit that:
You messed up… AGAIN.
It’s going to be different because you’re not running away from your problems. This time, you won’t run away from the pain you feel. Instead, you’ll embrace it and let it overwhelm you. You’re going to feel every hit, every burn, and every cut. You’re not just hoping you will change. This time, you’ll have a strategy. This time, you’ll do things differently. This time, you’re ready to clash with Life once again.
You messed up. It’s time to do something about it.