One of the most important responsibilities of a coach or mentor is to identify those things that are blocking someone’s growth. There are often many obstacles that prevent us from truly experiencing the greatness that already exists within us. Trust me, the greatness is there, it is God given. We can all learn to tap into it, if we are willing to do the work to unleash our true potential.

A couple of significant blockers are forgiveness and guilt. We all experience these emotions in our lives. Others often use them to manipulate or control us. We then buy into this mindset that somehow we are bad and must be punished for our past transgressions. How many times have you done things out of guilt? Probably more then you are willing to admit. When we allow others to dominate our emotions, we give up our power to them. We do so at the expense of our own personal well-being and happiness. We then become angry and upset. If we allow this pattern to continue we become resentful.

It is impossible to create and manifest our hearts desires in this state of mind. There are only two things that can change this mindset. Gratitude and forgiveness. Today, I want you to focus on forgiveness.

Forgiveness begins by forgiving yourself first. Stop beating yourself up for all the dumb and stupid things you have said and done in your life. Raise your hand if you haven’t done and said stupid things. We all have! Welcome to the human race. We need to get over it. Let it go! It doesn’t serve you in any way. Start by striving to do and be better. Acknowledge that you might have messed up but most importantly forgive yourself. Let go of all the negative emotions. This will allow your heart to be light again. You will be more joyful and experience more love and abundance.

Secondly, forgive others. We already know we are not perfect so why would we hold others to a different standard? Holding resentment towards others has a cost. That cost can be our physical and mental well-being. This also takes a toll on our health and the health of our relationships, a steep price to pay for a lack of forgiveness.

What do you need to forgive yourself for? What have you been holding onto that is eating you up? Identify it, acknowledge it, and let it go now!! Then forgive others. What you give away comes back to you.