Chapter 1: What should I expect when someone offends me?
Welcome back to the Ryan League Podcast, where we love to keep things short and sweet for you each and every week. Just want to give you a little nugget of inspiration that can add value to your day, your week, your month, perhaps a meeting that you're having at work, wherever you find yourself. We're always just trying to add value to your life.
Over the past couple of weeks, just to kick off 2026, we've been doing a podcast series called A Better You. We've looked at week one, what it looks like for you to be a focused you, what it looks like for me to be focused and locked in in 2026. And really proposing this question of what would your life look like a year from now if you really locked in?
Like if you really focused, I think you would be a better you. Week two, we talked about what it looks like to be a courageous you, a courageous me. 365 days from now, if you had a little bit more courage, what would your life look like? And then our last episode. A better you, I believe, is an honest you. I don't think we're all liars, but I do think we all live with some level of reserve.
And I can only imagine what our relationships and our lives, our careers would look like if we were just a little bit more honest. This last better you episode. in this podcast series that I made up. I didn't know how many episodes I was actually going to do on this Better You, but I think we've got some other things that I want to get to. So we've had some fun with this.
This is the last one for a Better You series. And then we're going to move into February. Who knows, maybe we talk about love and relationships and been getting lots of questions about that. So stay tuned for that. This last Better You episode, I think a better you and a better me would be a forgiving you, a forgiving me. A better you is a forgiving you.
And let me just tell you what's going to happen in 2026. I can predict the future. I can tell you exactly what's going to happen this year. I can guarantee you
That somebody in your life is going to say something, forget something, post something, like something, share something, assume something, misread something, interrupt something, leave you out of something, bring up something at the worst possible time. And in that moment, you are going to feel it. Your chest is going to tighten up.
Your mind is going to start building a case and your tone is going to sharpen. And all of a sudden you're going to find yourself standing at an all too familiar crossroads. Do I hold on to this or do I let it go? And here's the part that most of us miss. That decision, that moment, it feels like it's happening in the moment, but it doesn't.
You actually decide long before that offense ever shows up what kind of person you are going to be. You don't decide forgiveness after the comment. You don't decide forgiveness after the post, after the email, after the conversation. No, you decide now what you're going to do later when offense inevitably shows up. Because if you don't decide ahead of time, offense will decide for you.
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Chapter 2: How can I prepare to respond to offense in 2026?
You stop being fully present. You don't just keep pain out. You keep connection out too. And slowly, the walls you built to protect your heart become the same walls that isolate it. Another alternative to being a forgiving you is you can be a revengeful you. Yeah, an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.
Let me show you the way I'll get back at you for hurting me is beating you, putting you in your place. You go get them. Yeah. And here's the deal. You can do that.
You're grown.
You're allowed to do that. I would just submit to you. I just don't think that's going to lead to a better you. You want to know what's funny? I know people who got their revenge. They won. They said the thing. They proved the point. They came out on top. And yet somehow the anger is still boiling in their blood. The moment passed, but the poison stayed.
Because revenge may feel powerful in the moment, but it doesn't heal anything. It just keeps the wound open longer. My friend, forgiveness isn't saying it didn't hurt. It's not saying it was okay because it was not. It's not instant trust because it was broken. It's not staying in unsafe situations. Forgiveness is refusing to let resentment run your life.
It's deciding that what happened to you doesn't get to decide who you become.
So what might forgiveness look like for you in 2026? It might look like not sending that response. It might look like not leaving a comment on that post. It might look like choosing silence over sarcasm. It might look like unfollowing instead of unfriending. It might look like wishing someone well, even when their very name tightens your chest.
Maybe at your job, forgiveness starts with accepting a hard truth that you are going to work with people who say reckless things and send wild emails and somehow hit reply all at the worst possible moment. Somebody's going to talk over you. Someone's going to take credit for your idea. And in that moment, Forgiveness isn't pretending that it doesn't matter. It's deciding that it won't own you.
Forgiving a complicated coworker is how you refuse to let someone else's emotional immaturity set your workday agenda. In your personal life, it's the same thing. Forgiveness starts with another hard truth that the people closest to you will also hurt you the most. Not because they're cruel, but because they're close. Words come out sideways, tones sharpen, expectations go unspoken.
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