Quantum Happiness Series - Mistakes make it memorable
" Mistakes happen to everyone, so
climb down off your own back and relax,"
— Tammy Kearce
Beating ourselves up for mistakes is a self-destructive weed seed. A mistake only becomes a failure when left unanalyzed, lesson unlearned. So, when mistakes happen, and they always do, cultivate a habit of taking a moment to review:
What happened?
Where did this idea go off track?
What, if anything, could I have done to alter the outcome?
If given the opportunity, what would I change?
What might I do differently next time?
When you are unkind to yourself regarding a
mistake, stop and recognize that you are just as important and valuable as
everyone else even when you make mistakes. If you resolve to make better
decisions next time and learn from the experience, you will continue to grow
and blossom. So, climb down off your own
back and relax.
Mistakes happen to everyone, and very often, making mistakes is the only way we learn what works and what we should not to do next time.
Drupal disaster
In 2014, I was
working as a communicator for an electric cooperative and had agreed to
redesign their website. Although I had no prior web design experience, we had a
great IT (Internet Technology) team standing by to help.
Friday, before the
project began, the head of IT came by to say that he would be away on vacation
for two weeks. What he didn’t say was how busy the rest of the team would be
without him.
On Monday morning,
I came in and proceeded to make a hot mess of the new website. With our
in-house team already stretched thin, I was forced to locate resources, do
research, and slowly but surely redesign the site.
That experience
instilled in me a love of website design and content creation that changed the
course of my career. So, was making a hot mess of the cooperative’s website a
mistake or a happy accident?
Both.
Rain, rain go away???
Mistakes also have
a way of making mundane moments memorable. In 2005, James and I were on
vacation in Mexico eating lobster on a restaurant’s outdoor patio. Even though
we live in Florida, lobster is still a delicacy and we were very much enjoying
it.
When it started to
sprinkle, the other diners grabbed their plates and went inside, but we’re used
to late afternoon showers, so we decided to stay and finish our dinner. Before
long, the rain was blowing horizontally through the patio, whipping umbrellas
inside out and blowing away everything that wasn’t nailed down.
James and I,
however, hung onto our plates and finished our lobster in what seemed like a
tropical storm. Our clothes were soaked
and there was rainwater in our plates, but that was the most memorable lobster
we’ve ever eaten. More than a decade later, that memory still makes me smile.
Was it a mistake
not to grab our plates and go inside?
Maybe.
Was the meal a
failure?
Absolutely not. It was one of the best dinners of our lives.
Mistakes Make it Memorable
Document one mistake that taught you a valuable
lesson.
·
What
were the circumstances surrounding that experience?
·
What
lesson did you learn?
·
Do you
incorporate that lesson into your daily life?
·
If not,
how might you start?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Engagement exercise 2:
Analyze
your most recent mistake and determine:
·
What
went wrong?
·
What
went right?
·
What
might you have done to alter the outcome?
·
If
given the opportunity, what might you have done differently?
·
What
might you do differently as a result of this experience?
·
What
did you learn from the experience?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This has been an excerpt from the Everyday Vacay e-series.
Sources and resources:
Video: Ted/ Diana Laufenberg-
How to learn? From mistakes.
Video: TedX/ Lalitha Kumaramangalam Learn
From Your Mistakes and Embrace Your Failures
Video: HuffPost- Build a
Life Not a Resume/ Street Philosophy with Jay Shetty
Book: How to Forgive
Ourselves: Begin Again by Breaking Free from Past Mistakes by R.T.
Kenall
Book: Mistakes That Worked by Charlotte Foltz Jones
Website: IQMatrix.com – Quit
Complaining and Start Learning from Mistakes
Website: Harvard Business Review- The Miracle of Making Mistakes
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