Bad experiences and tough times can cloud your judgement and the way you look at the world and cause you to repeat mistakes and behaviours that don’t serve anyone.
Broadly, there are two ways to pay it forward:
a) You were dealt a bad hand, had a terrible experience, got treated badly, were manipulated, cheated, bullied and made to feel useless — and you want someone else to experience the same.
‘I had it rough so you should experience the same’.
‘I dealt with a lot of unwanted nonsense so I can’t let you have it easy’.
b) Irrespective of the hand you’re dealt or the experiences you have had, good or bad, you constantly seek to make things better for people. This translates to learning from other’s mistakes and your own, and using those to pave the way for something better.
‘This is what stood me in good stead and that’s why I want to pass it on to you’.
‘I never got this kind of support or guidance, but I don’t want you to suffer the same fate’.
Bad experiences can cloud your judgement and cause you to create a false set of beliefs, one that causes you to repeat mistakes and behaviours that don’t serve anyone.
Holding back, begrudging someone else their chance or putting them through an ordeal just because someone did that to you amounts to experiencing the injustice twice.
‘I didn’t have it easy. And didn’t deserve a lot of what I was put through. That’s precisely why I want you to have a different experience, one vastly different from mine. And when your turn comes, I hope you pay it forward’.
That’s a more empowering stance to take.
