Forgiveness Is the Future You Write for Yourself

Notes to Young Leaders | 3 October 2025

A note to young leaders.

Are you holding on to a grudge that you’ve been chewing on?

How’s that working out for you?

Is it making you more creative, more productive, more joyful?

I suspect not.

Move forward, forgive. No one is perfect and that includes you.

Forgiveness is not an emotion, it’s a decision. A decision that belongs entirely to you.

Some people say they’ll only forgive if the other person apologises. But forgiveness is an act of self-healing. Why would you surrender control of that to someone else?

To forgive doesn’t mean that you accept or turn a blind eye to what happened. It just means acknowledging that the other person, like you, is still a work in progress – and wishing them well on their journey to growth and maturity.

Forgiveness authors the future.

Revenge rewrites the past.