We all make mistakes

If you are anything like me, when you make a mistake, you dwell on it until the cows come home. My thoughts literally are taken up with it. Outwardly all seems fine, but inside you cannot get over the mistake you’ve made. Your friends and family will support you and tell you that you’re human. We can’t not make mistakes. But we live in a very unforgiving world, so others around you might not be so supportive. It can cost you.

For me, I’ve had to learn how to handle making mistakes the hard way. By making them several times (no specifics here but I’m sometimes not a fast learner about changing my ways) until I realise what I need to do to move forwards and accept it happened. For me, I used to get consumed by my mistake. It felt like I was my mistake. And now finally I can say, no! This doesn’t under value me as a person, I am not perfect, no one is. I also used to find every excuse under the sun to justify my mistake. You know what, you screw up, it’ll be much kinder to yourself and everyone else involved, just to own up to it and improve the process immediately. Honesty is often hard to argue with, and it’s pretty admirable. So many people seem to get wrapped up in their excuses, it only prolongs the situation. Own up and you can immediately start rectifying the situation and getting it sorted sooner rather than later.

But for me, this is all part of a wider picture. A picture about how well you personally cope in certain situations. Do you have the coping skills for dealing with stuff when times get tough? This is a journey I am exploring with myself at the moment. Last year, I could get stressed at the drop of a hat, but I am teaching myself strategies now to deal with life when it seems to get difficult. One of the most powerful tools that has improved my well-being in this way lately is actually a really small thing. I’ve been keeping a compliment and gratitude book for the past six months and I can truthfully say it’s had such a wonderful impact on my life. Nearly every night, I write down one compliment I’ve received during the day and one thing I am grateful for. During the day, I notice the positives so much more as my mind is wired for picking up possibilities for my book. I notice the positives much more than the negatives, and as a result I am generally calmer and happier. Could you benefit from a book like this? Why not try it just for a month? Find yourself a little notebook or anything you can write on and keep it with a pen by your bed. I really recommend keeping the pen there as well, as sometimes once you’re in bed, you just don’t want to go back downstairs to fetch one! What you write in there doesn’t have to be an essay, just a few words will do the trick. Try it, read it back at the end of the month…and I can almost guarantee you, the compliments you received during this time would have been forgotten by you, if not for your written documentation.

So, when I made a mistake last week, I didn’t freak out. I didn’t cry. I didn’t think about it for every second of the day. I accepted it. Dealt with it. Made a promise to myself to learn from it and move forwards. I’m sure part of this approach was down to my more positive outlook on life and part of that is due to my compliment and gratitude book.