Many years ago, when I first started doing work in front of groups, first on stages, and then facilitation and any number of other forums, I was real hung up on screwing up.

My longtime mentor said to me, "Ron, why don't you just make an ass of yourself as quickly as you can?"

"Why would I want to do that?," I replied.

"Because once you’ve made an ass of yourself, it's easy. You can't go any more downhill. You can get over yourself."

It seemed like a crazy idea. But it actually works. Just as soon as we take the risk of looking stupid, saying something stupid, admitting we might say something stupid, or we did say something stupid or foolish, the pressure is off. People will cut us slack because they'll know that we know we can be an idiot sometimes.

I know it's countercultural to admit such things about ourselves. It sounds demeaning, but we might as well be honest.

A guy named Anthony de Mello, a psycho-spiritual teacher now gone from the earth said, "I'm an ass, you're an ass. So, where's the problem?"

That allows us to get past all kinds of things and the next thing you know, we're smoothly moving right along. All the stress is gone.

So make an ass of yourself! I know you don't want to. Do it anyway. It works.