In the blink of an eye, a week’s worth of time, money, and sanity was completely ka-put. Right there, next to the Save button, sat the dreaded Delete button. A button that, once hit, could never be reversed. In my haste to finish it up (and also caught in the throws of “multi-tasking” once again) I hit the wrong button. Gone. Gone and never recovered.
Did I panic? Youbetterbelieveit. I Googled my problem and found hundreds of others who had made the same mistake. And a place to provide feedback to the software gods. Yes, I found, I was not alone. It was at that moment that the lessons sunk in:
Take a deep breath. It’s all gonna be okay, honey.
Step away. Take a break and breathe. I mean, unless the mistake cost you a life or limb, it’s probably not all that serious now is it? Repeat after me: I will never “multi-task” again.
It’s better the second time around. And the third, fourth, and so on.
And if that’s the case I pretty much can’t wait for the 20th time. Look, every mistake holds in it the lessons we need to learn. As Dr. Brian Goldman said, “Most of the greatest successes [in medicine] come from failure. They don’t get planned out and executed the first time.”
Give feedback from a place of love.
How does it feel when YOU get feedback that sounds like: “You suck. I can’t believe you would be so dumb to do something like that. I’m never going to speak to you/hire you/love you again.” Ouch. I hope no one has ever talked to you using those exact words… but I bet that you’ve heard a piece of that somewhere along the way. Don’t repeat the cycle. Wait on the feedback until you are calm, rational, and feeling some love. Then give it, from that place. Imagine how powerfully it will be received in that way.
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Mistakes are only mistakes if you don’t learn at least one thing from what happened. Let’s create a culture where we can share our mistakes and are rewarded for talking about it. Clearly, openly, and from a place of love.
PS – Something that DID work this weekend is that my full blog roll made it onto my website in one piece.
Check it out here.
xo
