How to Quickly Recover After Embarrassing Yourself
There are 2 steps to quickly recover from embarrassing yourself.
It is to:
- Be the first to make fun of yourself.
- Flood your face in other people’s memories.
I came to learn this formula after hanging out with this one guy who was an expert in embarrassing himself.
This guy had an enormous level of confidence for someone who seemed like a dork.
Skinny.
Big glasses.
Short.
Dressed like a bum.
Somehow, he had confidence that made others think:
‘What is he hiding?’
How did he move like that?
It’s because he didn’t fear embarrassing moments at all.
He had learned the art of recovering from questionable moments.
Making Out with an Old Lady
One time, me and a few people went out in West Palm Beach.
Me and the crew went to one club that looked like it was popping.
As we were waiting in line, the dork, who I will call Tom for the sake of the story, said:
‘Hey guys, get ready. I’m going to be getting all the girls tonight.’
He was hyping himself up a lot.
We smirked and sarcastically said:
‘Sureeee Tom.’
As the night progressed, Tom got super drunk.
He was dancing uncontrollably.
As more time passed, let’s just say Tom was true to his word.
We saw him in the middle of the dance floor making out with…
An old lady!!
The lady was at least 70 years old.
White hair, wrinkly skin, and had on a vintage outfit.
While they were making out, me & the squad were laughing.
Tom was looking at us like he was the man.
Like he pulled off a big challenge.
We pulled out our phones and began recording him.
No way were we going to let him live down this embarrassing moment.
The Next Day
The next day, we all grabbed breakfast.
Tom came through.
As soon as he sat down, we began making fun of him.
He had no clue what we were talking about.
He must have drank so much that he forgot what he did.
One of us pulled out our phone and showed him why we were making fun of him.
Tom saw the video of him making out with the old lady from the night before.
Tom’s face did a glitch for a second.
It was clear that he was embarrassed as hell.
He couldn’t believe what he was doing.
We were about to begin roasting him with our old lady jokes.
I had my jokes ready.
‘Let’s just say iHop isn’t the only place Tom gets senior citizen discounts.’
Right before we were about to get one old lady joke off, Tom says:
‘Damn, did I take an L or what? I need to be clearer next time when I say I’m going to get all the ladies!’
Then he began making fun of himself!
Not one joke, but a series of jokes.
The rest of us were confused.
‘Huh?? What’s going on? We should be the ones making fun of you, not the other way around!’
When Tom made fun of himself, we were caught off guard.
We still got our jokes off, but it didn’t pack the same punch.
The Flooding Face
After the embarrassing moment, Tom would show up to every event.
When he kept showing up to events, we were presented with new memories of Tom.
It felt like the old lady debacle happened LONG ago.
Even though the actual event wasn’t that long ago.
It was like 2 weeks ago.
Since Tom kept hanging out with us, the embarrassing memory kept getting pushed further and further back.
If it wasn’t for the video, then we would have completely forgotten about Tom’s mishap.
Why Tom Recovered from The Embarrassing Moment with Grace
The reason Tom was the master of bouncing back was because he knew how to recover.
The 2 steps to recover from embarrassing moments are to:
- Get a head start in making fun of yourself.
- Flood your face in events.
Most people mess up one or both of the steps.
1. Rather than getting a head start in making fun of themselves, they get angry when others make fun of them.
Every now and then, others will make fun of you.
If you get butthurt when they crack jokes, then you show weakness.
Others will only double down on the jokes.
Take the Eminem approach from 8 Mile.
In the final rap battle, Eminem made fun of himself so much that the opposing battle rapper had no clue how to insult Eminem.
2. Rather than show up to every event, they go ghost mode
Whenever people embarrass themselves, they just disappear.
The pain is too strong.
We need to take the counterintuitive approach.
Flood your face in every event.
If you disappear after an embarrassing moment, that will be people’s last memory of you.
They’ll just bring it up the next time they see you.
‘Hey, weren’t you super drunk and throwing up in Soho the last time we saw each other?’
If you immediately begin showing your face, they may initially make fun of you.
But soon, they will begin forgetting.
New memories will take its place…
Overcome Embarrassing Moments and Create Funny Stories
What do all funny stories have in common?
‘Um…not sure. What?’
They were all born from an embarrassing moment.
I recommend you create content in the future of embarrassing moments.
Content creation is an easy way to rewire our perception.
In the future, when you mess up, you’ll be responsive rather than reactive.
You’ll think:
‘This will make a funny story in the future.’
Say what you want about Tom, but there was one thing no one could deny…
He was as confident as it came.
Many people suffer from the “jig is up” mentality.
They fear that one day they will get exposed for something.
For Tom, there was no jig.
His inner world felt pain multiple times.
Each time he recovered, each time he added a brick to his tower of confidence.
