You trip and fall at the office. There’s toilet paper stuck to your shoe. You forget your entire presentation in front of hundreds of people.
Embarrassing moments can be small or large in impact. One thing’s for sure, though: we’ve all been there. We have an embarrassing moment and feel mortified—but we don’t want to show it. Instead, we hope our humiliation goes unnoticed or that we can at least recover quickly. Here are 3 tips that will help you accomplish this mission:
One, laugh it off. If the embarrassing moment is of a lesser degree, you can probably admit that it is kind of funny. Learn to laugh at yourself. Even if you don’t find the situation funny, fake it till you make it. This will indicate to others that it’s no big deal and they’ll carry on with their day.
Two, remember that everyone has been in your shoes. In the moment, it can feel like we are alone in our humiliation. But the truth is that we all have embarrassing moments. So, continue to ride it out by reminding yourself that everyone—every single witness of your embarrassing moment—has been in a similar situation themselves.
Three, solicit embarrassing stories. Maybe remembering that other people get embarrassed doesn’t quite do the trick. Take it a step further and implore embarassing stories from others. You can ask friends or families to tell you their stories, or you can do a quick Google search. Either way, hearing or reading about other people’s embarassing moments will make you feel better.
These three tips will help you recover quickly from an embarrassing moment.
