Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership

To Forgive Is to Be Impeccable

I can’t overemphasize the importance of forgiveness. When you have done your best and you have fallen short, or when you were not as impeccable as you might have been, remember that forgiveness is critical. After all, you are human, and it takes great courage to accept responsibility for failures or misdeeds, to make the situation right (if possible), to dust yourself off, and to renew your aspiration to be a mindful leader.

Lack of forgiveness toward yourself is often caused by guilt.  And guilt is nothing more that infinite self-punishment. It is the gift that keeps on giving. If it goes unchecked and you do not work with the hindrances that are causing the guilt (and lack of forgiveness), it will control and taint everything you do, and it will influence how others work with you.

This is not to say that there is not a place for remorse. Remorse is actually healthy. It acknowledges that you may have fallen short by omission or commission. It causes you to correct what can be corrected and to commit to not intentionally perpetuating the same wrongdoing in the future. There is learning in this. It has a natural beginning and end. The remorse will go on for as long as it needs—until the learning and forgiveness has occurred, but not longer than that. Then you move on.

In the next blog I will talk about forgiving others which is equally important as a leader.

Over the summer my plan is to write one blog a week.  So if there are topics you have questions about or would like me to address let me know.