In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick reflects on a recent interview with Mack (Mac) Newton, using Newton’s story of mailing a World Series ring to his estranged father as a springboard to discuss forgiveness. He recounts how Newton’s father abandoned him, the decades‑long resentment that followed, and the transformative moment when Newton sent the ring, declaring the gift was as much for himself as for his father. Gubernick expands the anecdote into a broader philosophy: forgiveness—both of others and of oneself—is essential for taking charge of one’s life. He argues that holding onto grudges fuels mental and physical ailments, self‑sabotage, and attracts negative circumstances, whereas freeing oneself through forgiveness reshapes inner thought patterns, which in turn influence the outer world. The episode emphasizes that most people act with good intentions despite mistakes, and that blaming oneself or others is counterproductive. Gubernick urges listeners to practice “forgive early and often,” focus on the present, and recognize that forgiveness can unlock personal growth, health, and better relationships.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. We're going to talk about the Mac Newton interview from yesterday. If you have not listened to this interview, please go back and listen to it. I believe it might be one of the most impactful things you hear this year, if not, you know, throughout your life. I mean, it is that good in my opinion. Mack Newton is that good. And today I wanna talk around forgiveness because when you listen to the Mack Newton interview, you know that when we really started getting into things, it was when Mack started telling the story about his relationship with his father. And to summarize, as you may recall, Mac has a few World Series rings, and he took one of those rings after he had won it, he boxed it up, he labeled it, he addressed it to his father. He sat on it for a while. He didn't mail it right away, but he boxed it and addressed it to his father. Now, when you listen to the story, you know Mac's relationship with his father was not a great one. His father abandoned him at a pretty early age and frankly didn't raise him at all. And Mac had decades of resentment for his father. And he knew, though, that at some point in his life he was going to have to forgive and move on. But when he told the story, you may remember, he described his father, you know, excited and crying about literally crying for the first time. Mac said he'd ever seen his father cry about receiving the ring. And, and Mac made a statement like, you know, this was a gift for you, yes, but I want you to understand it's a gift for me. It was Mac's way of displaying that he had forgiven his father. It was for Mac. It was for him. Mac believes that forgiveness is a way to take charge of your life. To kind of back up a little bit, and I've had a lot of conversations with Mac over the years about forgiveness, Mac says he believes it's important that we realize that most of us are living our lives the best way we know how. We're out here in the world trying to get the most out of life, and in doing so, we're going to make mistakes and we're going to act on misinformation. We're gonna do some stupid stuff. Yet all the while, we're just trying to be happy and, and be the best we can. As Mack would say, nobody really wakes up in the morning and says, great, today is another chance to go screw up. Today's another chance to mess up my life. In other words, most people are just trying to do the best they can where they are with what they have. And since we're all pretty messed up and misinformed and sometimes just doing stupid stuff, it's no surprise then that some of the things we do hurt other people, especially some people close to us. Now, lots of people, those that, you know, do the transgressions, those that hurt others, as well as the recipients of that hurt, they— we spend our lives punishing ourselves mentally, physically for these things, for these non-specific shortcomings that we believe we have. Some of us dwell on, on these past transgressions. Some of us overeat. Some of us drink too much. Some of us systematically destroy other relationships as a direct result of this, this pent-up feeling. Some people make themselves sick. Some choose to be poor as the appropriate punishment, all for something that they thought or that they said or possibly did to someone else, or that they received from someone else. You start to feel that you don't deserve to be happy or successful. This is how Mac felt. Well, we didn't get into it on the day of the interview. And having conversations with him, I knew that the feelings he had for his father were playing a role in all places within his life, in his relationships, in his— in the way he was leading and influencing others. And he realized it was time to forgive. Forgive and let go. Let go and forgive. Now, forgiving others, as Mac would tell you, is pretty difficult. Forgiving yourself is even harder though. Max said that we are only healthy to the exact degree to which we can freely forgive yourself, you know, ourselves and others. The inability to forgive causes resentment, it causes headaches, it causes all sorts of other stuff that can lead to heart attacks and, and stress attacks and mental breakdowns, all of this. Some people never ever forgive their parents, for example, and mess up their lives just to prove to the parents what a lousy job they did. Basically saying, it's your fault my life is messed up, it's your fault I'm broke, it's your fault I'm lonely or unhappy. So parents, or whoever it may be, you can sit there and watch me suffer. Mac did a little bit of that, but then he realized he's got to forgive. He's got to forgive and let go. Because your outer world reflects your true inner world, because you attract people and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts, and because you become what you think about, your ability to forgive is a quality that you must develop. Again, your outer world will truly reflect your inner world. And if you've got this inner turmoil, this inner resentment, that, that is going to influence who you attract to your world, the circumstances that you attract. Things tend to harmonize with your most dominant thoughts. So we've got to choose to change. And when we choose to change, our environment and others begin to change. Blaming others, according to Mack, and blaming ourselves gets us ass— absolutely nowhere. So you've got to start living by forgiving early and forgiving often. As Mack said, forgiveness is just a way, if not the only way, to take charge of your life. So As we think about forgiveness, and I don't want to make any assumptions, but I'm going to guess we all have somebody or somebodies in our world that we haven't forgiven and that we're holding some sort of resentment towards or some feelings inside of ourselves. Or maybe it's not somebody externally. Maybe you haven't forgiven yourself internally for something that you did. Mac would tell you, stop it, move forward. Stop thinking about the past, it doesn't do anything for you. Stop thinking about the future, right? I will do something doesn't really do much for you. Start thinking about who you are today, thinking about the present. I am, I am someone that's capable of letting go. And, and kind of, you know, conclude here today, when Mac told his story about mailing that ring to his father, and his father of course being excited about having the ring, but, but Mac being the true beneficiary of letting that go, I think that that moment, you know, that recognition or acknowledgement that he had forgiven his father opened up his mind, opened up his world to so many new things, to so many great things. So on that note, I want you thinking about forgiving others, even forgiving yourself, and recognize the relief that you may feel, and recognize the inner world that may change for you and directly impact your outer world. That's all I have for you today. Thank you, Mac Newton, for the content. The No Days Off podcast Remember, every single day brings us an opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
