Shameless Shame

What do you think of when you hear the word shame? Probably nothing good, right? It may bring back memories and/or current realities of broken relationships, bad decisions, apathy, emotional scars, etc. There could be a plethora of causes.

I had a revelation about shame, and the reality of it. First of all, I should say (shamelessly) a lot of my inspiration for these blog posts come at least in part from listening to the Ziglar Show podcast, which is hosted by my awesome dad, Kevin Miller. Maybe I’m a little biased, but each episode is so significant and rich with valuable principles, ideals, concepts and habits to live by.

This topic of shame was not a topic discussed in the podcast, but it’s a realization I had based on talking with my dad about an episode I listened to. The Ziglar show is listened to by around 40–50 thousand people on average per episode, and I have the opportunity to have input into the show by commenting on questions that are posed on social media and then discussed in the show, based on the comments and input.

So here is the first part of the revelation: The majority of the time, I don’t comment on the questions because there is shame involved. Because I would feel shameful about the answers and input I give and wish I would have more/something different to offer. The question that instigated this in me was: “Do you believe your are a result of your circumstances or your decisions?” I almost commented, but didn’t…because of shame.