How to deal with those EMBARRASSING moments in life

And the “popular group” kept bringing up something you did in grammar school to show how much of a ‘dork’ you are?  If it still bothers you, they will continue to do it, even through college.  But if you smile, say something like “yeah I guess I was a bit of a dork back then” and let it go; then they have nothing to bring up.  It’s not fun to embarrass you anymore. 

They think it will help hide their own embarrassing moments.  However, most people catch on to that fairly quickly and the idiot is usually the one embarrassed after that.  For instance:  you were having a bad day last month and you gave the boss the wrong report at the weekly meeting.  Everyone laughed and the boss gave you a bit of a ribbing and you blushed and left the meeting to get the correct report.  When you returned, you smiled and said something like “guess I blew it that time, sorry everyone for the delay”.  Now three weeks later, the office idiot is trying to make himself look good in front of some big wigs and he brings up your embarrassing moment.   What do you do?  Smile, admit the instance and let it go.  The "tattler" will be the one who looks bad, not you.

Don’t admit to doing something if you didn’t do it!  That’s right, it won’t make you look good in the end, it will just add a bit of disbelief to your admittances when you did do it.  This action backfires 100% of the time.  Not right away, mind you, and maybe even not after the first few, but it does backfire.  When it does, well, you might as well go get that paper bag and put it over your head right now because you won’t be able to show your face without comments (and laughter) for a very long time! Plus, your honesty is now in question! 

Don’t purposely make a mistake.  This is not only dishonest and harmful to you in the end, but many mistakes go unnoticed for long periods of time and actually cause long-term problems.  Especially if you don’t remember and go back and fix the error.  And with a rash of ‘mistakes’ you become unreliable rather than just making a human error.

You created a report for the boss a few months ago and made a calculation mistake on the fifth page citing that the company made a profit of $100,000 when they actually made $10,000 profit.  The boss sees the error, points it out at the meeting and everyone has a good laugh because it would be nice if the company had made that much profit.  Then the boss asks you to get a corrected report to him by the end of the day and the meeting moves on. 

Several days later, you are working on a report about supply usage and you see a large opportunity to make another error to gain attention because everyone has been patting you on the back and telling you its okay, mistakes happen.  You purposely change one number and finalize the report.  During the meeting, the mistake goes unnoticed and you are so busy going over facts and figures being given out by the boss that you forget about it.  The mistake, small at first, begins to build and snowball until it has reached corporate level and has seriously affected the bottom line of the company.  An investigation shows you made the mistake.  No one’s patting you on the back now!

When you find yourself embarrassed, no matter what the cause, accept it, laugh at it with everyone else, and move on.  Don’t find things to be embarrassed about and don’t purposely make mistakes so you can be the object of sympathy.  Just accept what life throws at you and keep moving.