There’s this very important thing in life that all of us have, but many—in fact, most of us fail to notice. Even though we are walking around with that thing taped to our souls and minds at every single moment of every single day, there are so many of us who either just ignore it, or are oblivious to its existence.
Wait for it, wait for it.
This thing is a superpower. A superpower to magically turn your life around. It’s a decision, and you can either adopt it or let it go to waste. But you always have this choice because you always have this thing with you, everywhere you go. In any situation, any condition.
Good any good guesses to go?
Probably not, I haven’t been too helpful in the clues.
Okay, let’s imagine a scenario in your family: a parent or a sibling, or maybe just your best friend, has committed a crime, maybe out of mistake, or maybe in their complete senses. However, now when they’ve got the punishment for it and they’ve done everything humanly possible to seek redemption from the world, and everyone has forgiven them and decided to hand them this one opportunity.
But in that moment, you are conflicted.
Actually, not necessarily conflicted, you are just dead set upon this that you are not going to forgive a criminal. Now it’s not a family member or a friend of yours anymore, now it has turned into a criminal.
A plain, and simple criminal.
And you’re not willing to give them the second chance.
You are depriving them of the only one thing that have.
A second chance.
You are not letting them see it either, you are putting the blinds on their eyes and keeping them from seeing that they do deserve a second chance.
Because everyone deserves a second chance, we all do: you, me, a criminal, unless, though, they’ve done something terrible, horrible, heinous or barbaric.
Yeah, I know, most of us do nothing with this second chance, and instead just committ a bigger, worse crime. But the default state of human mind after doing something bad, is feeling guilty. Feeling rueful, wanting a second chance, wanting to turn their life around,
And those who don’t grab this opportunity end up living the same life as before. We are not talking about them, those who don’t use this magical formula to transform their lives.
We are talking about the ones who do.
They carry the guilt everywhere—that’s a setback of second chances. You have to carry the guilt of it at every single place. That’s the price you pay.
But look at the other thing—you get to start a new life.
And it always feels good, starting all over again, because you are dumping behind all the weight from your head and it always feels refreshing.
Now, I’m talking about compassion and humanity you showcase by giving someone a second chance in life. I’m not, under any circumstances, talking about foolishness and stupidity that go through your mind when you are giving someone new chances repeatedly.
Everyone deserves a second chance, but no one deserves a third, fourth, a fifth chance or so on.
You should give someone a second chance, but don’t give them a third chance, or any further than that. And if they’ve exhausted the second chance too, with another mistake, maybe it’s not a good fit for you anyway.
The thing about this is that this applies to every field of life: in work, in relationships, in the society as a whole.
And another thing about second chances is that it’s not, like, “trademarked”, with the criminals. The criminals and those who’ve done some mistake aren’t the only ones who deserve second chances.
In a way, we all deserve second chances. You, me, and everyone around us.
Like, I said, you don’t need to be a criminal to deserve a second chance. Maybe you just made a genuine mistake and messed things up. Maybe you were trying something and you failed. You failed bad.
In that case, you have the opportunity to use that second chance of yours, but something holds you back. Most probably it’s your own self.
It holds you back and deprives you of the one thing I talk about.
In this case, you are the guilty and you are the panel of judges too. You are the law-maker and the law-follower. You decide if you want to give yourself a second start, a new beginning. You decide what you want to do with your lost mind; if you want to give it a direction or let it wander around all your life?
Don’t be too harsh.
Like you weren’t harsh on others, you don’t have the right to be harsh on yourself either.
It’s you we are talking about. Give yourself this second chance.
Let go of the resentment you feel towards yourself and the world. It isn’t such a bad place, your soul. (No, I was not talking about the world, as the world is kinda a bad place, but, oh well).
You should probably give your guilt-ridden soul some peace, let it some rest. Don’t always be so fidgety. If you made a mistake, own up to it and start thinking of how you can make it right.
Then use your second chance, and make it right.
And try not to do any more mistakes.
The main concern is—how so many of us end up living mediocre and rueful lives because we thought we were so bad and no one instilled any other conception into our minds.
So we just believed that we had no right whatsoever to change our lives now.
It is too late, I couldn’t do it. What would others say? It’s better if I remain miserable forever because I don’t deserve a chance to be happy.
And no one told you otherwise.
No one gave you the second chance. And that includes you too.
You didn’t give yourself a second chance either.
So you’re no one to say, when you yourself were waiting for a messiah to come to save you.
The messiah never came. You were never saved.
But that’s not a strong argument. You could’ve been your own messiah, though. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all you. It’s all about you. What’s within you, and what are you willing to do with it. Are you willing to give yourself the second chance you deserve along with the 9 billion other people on the planet?
Are you willing to be brave and shout it out at the sky, quietening all others down to say that “I DESERVE THIS SECOND CHANCE!” You have deserved it since the very beginning, you’ll keep deserving it, and having that superpower within your pocket, until you exhaust it.
We deserve any second chance others give us, and we deserve any second chances we give ourselves. We deserve this second chance. If there ever comes a point in life when we make a mistake or mess things up, then we are liable, it is mandatory to use the second chance. Give yourself the opportunity.
And then see what you do next, see what you’re up to here.
See what mountains you can either climb or break, driven by the fire that’s constantly setting your heart to flames, challenging you to prove yourself.
Prove it. Prove it that you are worthy of getting this new start.
In fact, life gives us second chances too. And numerous examples, countless experiences, all of it, pointing towards Life’s forgiveness capacity. Life’s kindness and willingness to grant us second chances.
If you make a mistake today, let tomorrow be your second chance. If you make a mistake tomorrow, let the day after be your second chance. If you make a mistake the day after tomorrow, let the follower be the second chance. And so on and so on.
As long as you’re not making the same mistakes again and again, as long as you’re learning to grow. Have your second chances.
Let the sun be the decider of how many times you are allowed to try again.
