When I heard someone saying this last week, it resonated with me immediately! I thought: that is exactly how I feel about people saying ‘sorry’!! I always struggle when people keep apologizing, but then do nothing to change their behavior. Those apologies mean nothing to me. I know it’s a first step, to voice your regret, but that’s all it is: a first step!

Showing you are sorry through how you act afterwards, is what will make people feel better, and, what will tell them that you really mean it, when you say you regret what you did or said.

You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

We all do things we regret, we all make mistakes, but it only remains a mistake, when afterwards, we do nothing to alter our behavior.

I would even go one step further and say, I think we need to make mistakes to be able to grow, to be able to learn, to be able to become more human, more compassionate, to become the best version of ourselves.

Nobody’s perfect, but what we need to do, is, become better day by day. Our goal here on earth is to grow, to be our best possible selves.

I like the following quote* of Debbie Fall:

“Like the lotus flower that is born out of the mud,

we must honor the darkest parts of ourselves,

and the most painful of our experiences,

because they are what allows us,

to birth our most beautiful self.”

Become the best version of you.

Envision what you want your legacy to the world to be. And live accordingly.

Make sure your legacy will be, what you want it to be, how you want people to remember you.

Be as pure as possible.

You don’t need to be perfect, but you need to be pure, honest, respectful, compassionate.

Ask yourself: “Where can I be of service?”

Whether you help children, elderly, animals, … whether you protect forests, oceans, … it doesn’t matter. Choose an area where you know you can be of help.

Offer your services without any expectation of rewards.

We are all here together on our planet Earth, and the sooner we realize that we’re all in this together, that we are all responsible for all life on Earth, the sooner everyone will become the best version of themselves.

I invite you all to make some time to reflect upon your life

Make sure you have enough time, go to a very quiet place.

Make sure you can ‘hear’ your own thoughts.

Make sure you can feel what your heart is telling you.

Take notes if you want to. That will make it more tangible.

Write down where you are in life.

Write down, what you are happy about, what you would like to do more of.

Write down the things that you now know, were not your finest moments. Think about how you would handle similar situations now.

This will give you a very clear vision, of how you are in life at this very moment, and of how you would like to continue in life.

Then visualize what you want your legacy to look like. Write it down.

Explore how you can work your way towards living that life.

Write it down, and plan, what you are going to differently from now on.

Make a list of what you ARE going to do.

Make a list of what you are NOT going to do anymore.

Start with one thing on both lists and practice this for a couple of weeks.

Once you have made it part of your life, once it’s become a habit, see what more you can add/ let go of.

The longer you will be thinking, and living, that ‘new’ life, that life you want to be your legacy here on Earth, the more you will become the best version of yourself. You won’t have to be sorry anymore, because you will have become better and better.

Thank you all for reading me and for supporting me on Medium! If you want unlimited access to all of my articles and of many other authors, you can become a Medium Member and you’ll be supporting me, and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!

Katrien

 

*”From the guided meditation “Lotus’ by Annemaree Rowley on Insight Timer.

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