Fire Starter,

Are you holding on to past failures, mistakes, tanks? Time to spring clean them out of your system, so you can move forward.

To help us all say, “Thank you, next” to those cringeworthy fails, behold…

The Purge the Past Exercise. Pull out your journal or print this email, and answer away.

1. List your three favourite screwups.
By “favourite,” I mean the doozies. Fiascos so mortifying that you just gotta love ‘em. Can’t come around to reliving your F-ups quite yet? Then just pick the first screw-ups that come to mind.

2. What did you learn?
Cynicism won’t get you very far here. Truthfully and philosophically ask yourself what you learned. What were your eyes opened to? How were you made stronger by the experience?

3. Can you see a pattern in the lessons you learned?
Annoyingly, this is also referred to as “repeating lessons.” Humans can’t seem to avoid making the same mistakes more than once. Bless us.

4. How has what you learned changed the way you approach things?
It’s only a lesson if it shifted your perspective or the way that you behave.

5. Things you can do when you’re done with this purge worksheet…

• Write HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! in big letters across your page.

• Give thanks for the lessons… then tear it up into teeny tiny pieces.

• Mail it to yourself with a love letter extolling all of your many virtues.

• Start a fire with it!

To all the spectacular blunders that made us better, stronger, more conscious; paid some karma; gave us much to be grateful for and something to laugh about… buh-bye. And thanks. @DanielleLaPorte (Click to Tweet!)

With all my Love (and no regrets),

Danielle

Danielle LaPorte is an invited member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100, a group who, in Oprah Winfrey’s words, “is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters.” She is author of White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path—from one seeker to another. The Fire Starter Sessions, and The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul—the book that has been translated into 8 languages, evolved into a yearly day planner system, a top 10 iTunes app, and an international workshop program with licensed facilitators in 15 countries. Named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes, millions of visitors go to DanielleLaPorte.com every month for her daily #Truthbombs and what’s been called “the best place online for kickass spirituality.” A speaker, a poet, a painter, and a former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, Entrepreneur Magazine calls Danielle, “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” Her charities of choice are Eve Ensler’s VDay: a global movement to end violence against women and girls, and charity: water, setting out to bring safe drinking water to everyone in the world. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her favourite philosopher, her son. You can find her @daniellelaporte and just about everywhere on social media.