Guilt is pretty useless for most things, but it has been known to come in handy when looking for a tool to destroy people’s lives. Guilt is good at beating people up. It’s good at messing with your head and shredding your emotions. It’s also pretty damn good at destroying relationships. Other than that, guilt is a toxic waste of time and space.
People are more likely to change when you can make them feel good about themselves. Helping a person up is more often about getting them to let go of misplaced guilt. Guilt carried for so long it has become a part of who they are. Like a deformed growth attached to their personality, made worse when they mistakenly claim ownership of it. This is mine and I deserve to carry it because of my faults, failings and past mistakes. Unfortunately only good people feel guilt and remorse; the ones who should, don’t, because they have more sense and see guilt for what it is, a destructive waste of time.
We are not required to feel guilty; we are required to learn and then choose wisely. Once is a mistake, twice is a life choice requiring serious re-evaluation, but three times is a habit requiring our attention. Education never uses guilt as a motivator for personal change; neither does it use guilt as a big stick to beat the crap out of those we wish to inspire to greatness. If you wish to change you educate, to empower you help people to let go of misplaced guilt and realise their potential for personal greatness.
We all carry baggage of one description or another. Some is necessary for the journey we have to make, but quite often we carry a load surplus to requirements. Out grown and no longer representative of whom we are, yet we hang on to it for no other reason our name is on the label and we are not sure how to let go. Guilt instinctively tightens our grip and fear renders us powerless to let the lightest burden go.
