Prompt: Write about forgiveness.
The prompt for today, July 16th, 2026, is: Write about forgiveness.
I think forgiveness is what allows us to move forward, essentially. And I think we forgive others, yes, but we have to forgive ourselves as well.
I remember seeing a CEO on TikTok—I’m sure it was TikTok—who was talking about success. He said the key is to forgive yourself to an almost ridiculous degree. I think what he meant was that you’re going to make mistakes. Things aren’t going to go well. You’re going to make bad decisions, and you’re probably going to hurt some people. But you forgive yourself. You continue to forgive your actions. If you can manage that, then perhaps you can reach that C-suite level of success.
And I think there is something to that.
There has to be, I think, some cutthroat nature to people who are that ambitious. Because of that… cutthroatness—is that a word? I don’t know.
But because of that, they’re going to hurt other people. They’re going to take advantage of other people because, in those moments, their only objective is to progress. If they were to sit with those decisions and agonize over the impact they had, they wouldn’t be cutthroat. They wouldn’t be able to move forward. And I think that’s where that self-forgiveness piece comes in.
When it comes to forgiving other people, however, I think we have to if we want a relationship or a situation to move forward.
This might be a trite example, but I had one really bad experience with an electronics retailer. A really bad experience. I’ve never shopped there again. I’m refusing to forgive that company and the actions of those people. So our relationship is permanently soured.
I think with human beings I’m much the same. If I can’t forgive somebody for something they’ve done, then I just stop interacting with them completely. I’m sure other people have done the same to me. I just don’t know who, because they don’t exist in my life anymore.
But yes, I think forgiveness is that one thing we have to do in order to move forward.
I wonder if there’s something interesting in the etymology of the word.
Anyway, you can find this prompt and many more at Letters Lounge, www.letterslounge.com.
Of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this prompt—or any of the others—so please do leave a comment, or a link to your blog or audio journal, or whatever it happens to be, and I’ll be sure to check it out.
Talk to you tomorrow, folks.
This transcript was lightly cleaned up with the help of AI to improve readability while preserving the original voice and intent of the recording.
Leave a Reply