A second chance given well can turn into someone’s whole comeback story.

Most people who mess up are already running the failure on a loop in their head, so punishment adds very little information. What changes things is someone treating the mistake as an event rather than an identity. That is what makes a second chance work, and given well it can become the hinge a whole story turns on later. Given with a reminder attached, it is just a longer sentence.

If someone near you is in that spot, hand them a real task rather than a lecture. Do not bring up the old thing while they are doing it. Let the new work be the last word.