Recently, a friend from high school posted on Facebook that he was now 6 months sober. A huge accomplishment for someone who had been drinking for probably 40 years. After he posted that, a few days later he wrote that he was no longer going to do that because some on Facebook criticized him for posting something personal and a few just being terrible people, posted nonsense.
I wrote back and told him two words he should carry with him on journey. Two words that are to me, very powerful and should be applied to so many things in your life that you are knocking over.
Never Apologize.
Never.
As a cue from The Godfather—“Never apologize.” It can mean so much. Never apologize for your success. Never apologize for winning awards. Never apologize for your sobriety. Never apologize.
I looked up many references for this and when you work your tail off for something and you reap the rewards, never apologize. Why? You earned it. You beat the odds. When everyone said you can’t, you simply said, I can.
I have preached about not telling everyone everything on social media. We don’t need all of your unexpressed thoughts on there. We just don’t. I have a saying—-Confirm arrivals, not moves. Let that sink in. Don’t tell everyone about your journey but when you reach a milestone, absolutely tell the world.
I also say this all the time that celebrating other’s success is so therapeutic to each and every one of us. It just feel so good to do that and yes, some will have petty jealousy over your accomplishments but that is on them, not you.
So celebrate that milestone. Celebrate that accomplishment. Celebrate that goal you have just reached. Keep going and going and I always preach, don’t quit in whatever you are trying to do.
I am not going to tell you what to do but diminishing someone’s accomplishment to make yourself feel better is just chronically sad. You know how I know? I was that person. Yes, I was that person that would make a snide comment to make myself feel better. I have written about a great co-worker who told me once, “Joe if you put that energy into being positive, as you do being negative, you could accomplish some great things.”
That hit me right in the heart and the gut and I started applying it. Guess what it did? It worked, Praise the Lord, it worked.
So next time someone posts that they are a day sober, or a week sober, or 22 years sober, just type a simple nice message to them.
That is worth more than gold.
One of my favorite scenes is from the movie Cars 3. In it, Lightning McQueen makes a jump in his car that no one thought he could do. After he completed the jump, his friend says, “How did you know you could make that jump?” He says, “I never knew I couldn’t.”
Powerful! You are more powerful than you know so never apologize.