Have you ever wanted to whip yourself – or someone else? After spending several hours kicking off my new podcast “Eyes to See” yesterday, I was so excited to share it with you. Sadly, we encountered a technical glitch with the sound, though all systems were go during testing. Needless to say, I was very frustrated and disappointed, not only for the ‘wasted time’ but for not posting yesterday.

Disappointment is an inevitable part of the human experience. All of us have faced it at one time or another.  It stems from unfulfilled expectations, shattered hopes, and plans that do not materialize as desired. How we react to it is an integral part of Self-Leadership. When disappointed we can get angry and be tempted to punish ourselves or others. The road of punishment is prevalent in too many family patterns and causes years of damage to the psyche. Punishment is a bully that lives in our heads and rears up when we or others have messed up. It becomes a deep rut that we automatically fall into, instead of taking the high road of grace.

Left unchecked they can result in:

The more we churn the issue in our minds, the deeper we get mired in it. Worse yet, not only does the main external problem remain unsolved, but it spawns venomous babies that start to eat at us internally.

A few years ago, I created a powerful model that I use in my coaching and counseling practice to evict the self-punishment bully from your head. It guides you to give yourself and others C.R.E.D.I.T. when you’re disappointed and tempted to indulge in punishment. Yesterday I had to have a taste of my own medicine – and it worked! I’ll walk you through the 6 steps in the next post.

CTA:

Think of a frustrating situation in which you were tempted to punish yourself or someone else.

1. How has it felt to be punished in the past?
2. How effective was the punishment?
3. How’s your relationship with your punisher?
4. How has it felt to experience grace in the past?