Originally posted on my LinkedIn on 11/25/24 @ 11:26 AM. Someone said this to me a while ago, I wish I could remember who, but it’s helped me deal with a lot of adverse circumstances.A lot of us are going through hard times right now, and I’m sure a lot of people, like me, are feeling helpless. But there is one thing you can do for yourself pretty easily, even when you can’t seem to change your situation:You’ve got to forgive yourself for your misadventures.That one piece of advice has helped me a lot. Because even when you can’t change a negative circumstance, it’s all too easy to internalize it: blame yourself, think you somehow deserve it, Identify with it as if it’s a part of you.This advice has often helped me reframe things so I don’t take them personally, making it easier to carry on. Something really bad happens? It’s not “me“. It’s not “who I am“. It was a misadventure. Forgive yourself for having gotten into a misadventure, and continue on as you were, as yourself, without making that a part of you. It was an exception, not the rule.With this attitude, even if you feel like you couldn’t change your circumstances, even if you failed, at least you can carry on without bad circumstances changing you. Mike Kupietz , a reluctant scion of the postmodern age, is larger on the inside than the outside: perhaps not a composer, but a producer and arranger of sounds; nor a writer, but an avid writer-down; an occasional author of doggerel; an erstwhile urban hermit; and privately a man of very great ardor. He is, if now resigned to never succeeding at those personal and artistic pursuits he holds most dear, unwavering in his determination to fail at them as entertainingly as possible. He is currently in what he calls the "red bathrobe period" of his life. If you're wondering what all this has to do with FileMaker development or IT consulting: you done taken the wrong turn, this river don't go to Aintry—Mike's professional services are on his San Francisco FileMaker Pro consulting website. View All PostsPost navigationPrevious Post AI Doesn’t InnovateNext PostOn Time