There is a reason why the term "Dying of Embarrassment" exists- because quite often humiliation can kill our joy, spirit, and motivation.
If you've recently or have ever been a victim of your own pride, you may want to listen to these words of wisdom by Mr. Steve Harvey. As many may know, last month Steve hosted the Miss Universe 2015 and made the ultimate mistake of calling out the wrong winner, resulting in the 2.5-second crowning, and un-crowning of Miss Colombia.
After Miss Philippines was named the rightful queen, Steve offered up more than a few public apologies; however, they got lost in the pool of public backlash, scrutiny and being the butt of all social media memes and jokes. Some even went as far as to accuse the humble host that he pulled a PR stunt, which Steve denies couldn't be any further from the truth. It's safe to say that most assumed it would be a while until Steve would recover from his pageant blunder.
Guess again. Steve, still having a job to do and a full daytime talk show to host, used his platform recently to turn his mess into a message. He recently spoke on having to work through our mistakes, regardless of feeling shamed:
"Whenever something has happened in my life, every time I was elevated to a new position, something seemingly tragic happens along the way. Not so much tragic, but let's just say challenging. And people have so often times asked me, 'How do you keep looking at the positive? Why do you think there is some upside to this? Weren't you embarrassed? Didn't you feel humiliation?' Ok, I guess so. I guess there were moments of all of that.'But I wasn't raised to allow a mistake to determine my future or to erase all that I've done in my life [just] because you've made a mistake. And none of you should do that. None of you should allow a mistake to define the rest of your life. So what [if] you made a mistake? Get up and go again. Go again!"
He went on to say that his biggest lesson in life was from his mother, a Sunday school teacher who made sure Steve was strong in spirit and the word:
"My father taught me to be a man. My mother, though, taught me an equal if not more valuable lesson. She was a Sunday school teacher. She taught me about faith. So listen to me: Don't let anybody shake your faith. Because it was the only thing that got me through all of this!"
Preach Pastor Steve!
[Tweet "When your confidence is low, sometimes you've got to 'faith' it til you make it!"]
When all else fails in terms of confidence and courage, some times you just have to "faith" it until you make it, and move forward off the strength of knowing that even though things aren't ok now, they will be!
If there is one thing I've learned in life about pride, is that only we give power to the people and things we allow to shame us, humiliate us or make us feel lesser than. At the end of the day, embarrassment is an emotion like any other. The same way you can choose whether or not to let a person or situation get you mad, sad, happy, etc, is the same way you can choose whether or not you want to react, or even care, about people laughing at you or attempting to succumb you to a place of indignity. No seriously, ask yourself:
[Tweet "If no one built you, then who can break you?"]
Before offering up an amazing lesson on moving forward, Steve also had Miss Colombia on the show, to which even she herself added a little humor to the horror of that evening. When asked about how she felt about the moment Steve revealed the error of his ways, she responded:
Ariadna: I was laughing [when they took my crown away]. If you see the videos, I was laughing because I thought you were going to make a joke.Steve: That would've been the worst damn joke I would've made in my life.
Ariadna: I was like- 'No, he's going to be again in the mood, making people laugh and he's join going to make some joke.' You know? Like Oprah (throws hands up in air) "You're Miss Universe, you're Miss Universe. Everyone's Miss Universe!"
Class act! At the end of the day, the ladies that are blessed to even make it as far as Miss Universe has successfully beat out thousands of other hopefuls to make that stage, and have all exemplified etiquette, tact, and humility. The training incurred in these competitions does not simply go out the window at the first sign of trouble. Clearly, all of these women get where they are for a reason, and are winners in their own right.
