Hi
Now, I am someone who for some reason ends up in a lot of embarrassing situations or embarrassing things just seem to fling themselves right at me. I don't know what it is about me or why it happens but anyone who has been around me will probably agree that I am an embarrassment magnet.
I have many stories I could insert, from the time my mum invited someone I barely knew over for a sleepover when I was 14 and we sat in silence for literally the entire night to the time I first went for a pap smear (too much information? sorry). But whether it be something little or something huge, almost on a daily basis I'll end up doing something stupid. This could be because I really dislike serious situations so I tend to make a joke out of everything... Turns out not everyone is always ready for sarcasm. Anyway... Seeing as my entire life has been and probably will continue to be a stream of humiliating events I thought I'd share a few things to keep in mind and help you through your own embarrassing situations:
1. It Wont Last Forever
That moment when you're doing a presentation in front of a huge group of people, you're really nervous and you go to make an enthusiastic introduction but while doing so you get a little too enthusiastic, end up throwing your speech notes over the other side of the room while opening your arms into a "welcome to my presentation" motion and have to scurry over to pick them all up while everyone is staring at you wondering how you've made it this far in life? Yeah, I've been there. Only, I'm incredibly prone to my entire face going bright red so add that to the scenario and basically my mind decides that this is it. I've had a good life but at this very point I'm better off on another planet. I don't know if anyone else does this (I assume they do..) But I will go home, sit on my bed and try to distract myself with anything I can while making endless plans in my head on ways to never leave the house again (yay for supermarkets delivering now!).
But, sadly, life doesn't stop so you can take the seven thousand years you feel like you need to recover. The next day you have to go back and maybe face those people again. But, they will forget. It is much more of a big deal to you than it is everyone else. No one else has gone home and spent 12 hours thinking about what happened, only you. Besides, if someone does bring it up, you can just be the 'quirky funny one'. Which brings me to number two.
2. Laugh With Them
If you've done something embarrassing, everyone is laughing and all eyes are on you: Your very best bet is to join them. I think in life it's excellent to have the ability to laugh at yourself. However, I will admit that when you're red faced and wishing that people would focus on absolutely anything but you... this can be hard to do. But if you laugh, even if you don't feel like laughing, and acknowledge what's happened... then you're letting them know that you're in on the joke and you think it's funny too. "You can't hear them laughing if you're laughing louder" <-- I don't know who came up with that quote but it's brilliantly true and I love it.
3. You'll Become More Confident
A bit of this could have come with age... BUT the more you embarrass yourself the less you'll care. This may sound obvious to some people or completely stupid to others but in my opinion it works. I used to be so, so shy. Let me tell you, when you're incredibly shy and also incredibly... for lack of a better word, goofy... well life can be hard. It didn't matter how hard I tried I would seem to have people looking at me. Don't get me wrong, I still hate people looking at me. But I don't care anywhere near as much as I used to. In fact, things that I look back on and found horribly embarrassing five years ago, if they happened to me today I wouldn't care at all. Now, if I do something stupid and people laugh I don't have to force myself to laugh with them, I just do. The smaller things aren't so much embarrassing anymore but funny.
4. Nobody Is Thinking Badly Of You
This is something I used to struggle with a lot (and still sometimes do). Whenever I would do something embarrassing I would be convinced that everyone was looking at me and thinking I was an absolute idiot who didn't even deserve to be in the same room as them. But let's be honest... If I look at it from a logical perspective pretty much no one is thinking that. Most likely, people are a) glad it's not them, b) feeling bad and wishing they could help or c) not paying attention in the first place. There may be a select few people who are just generally pretty miserable sitting back going "idiot" but these people are rare, and they would be thinking that about anyone whether they had done something embarrassing or not. Nobody likes those people anyway. Which brings me to my fifth and final point...
5. You're Likeable
People like people they can relate to, and let's face it... clumsy people are relatable. We're all a bit clumsy and we all occasionally do embarrassing things. I find I like the person that gets up and does the speech red faced or almost falls over the shopping baskets at the supermarket. Especially when they're able to laugh it off. Those people are the fun, relatable people that others will like. I don't want to hear from the person who has done everything in life perfectly, I want to hear from the person who once ended up falling face first in the sales bin at the chocolate store or the person who went to put an apple into a bag at the grocery store and the entire shelf of apples fell on them. THEY are the stories you want to hear and the people you want to hang out with.
I hope this was some help to someone, have a lovely day!
x
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