Life is challenging, but most of us make it far more challenging than it has to be. We suffer from failures, defeats, and mistakes throughout our lives. That’s just how life is and that’s not a tragedy. The tragedy is that we repeat our mistakes. There’s no excuse for making the same mistake more than once.
We date the same type of person over and over. Or we overspend again and again. Whatever mistakes are plaguing your life, there’s a good chance that it’s not the first time you’re making them.
Imagine a life where you learned and benefited from each mistake!
Try these ideas to make that life you imagined become a reality:
- Evaluate your day each evening. Before bed, set aside 10 minutes to evaluate your day. Make a list of each mistake you made. Think about everything you could have done differently. Maybe you:
- Stayed up too late last night watching an old movie
- Were late to work because you didn’t put gas in the car the night before
- Didn’t bring an umbrella and got caught in the rain
- Showed up late to your 10:00 meeting
- Ate lunch out of the vending machine
- Yelled at your partner on the phone
- Were distracted at your son’s baseball game and missed his homerun
- Ate too much after dinner
- Determine a solution to each of these mistakes. Go through each mistake and find the best solution that you believe you’d be willing to implement consistently.
- For example, you could store an umbrella in the car. You could also check the weather each morning and determine whether you need to carry an umbrella that day.
- Implement your solution. The first two steps are easy. Now, it gets harder. Many of our mistakes are long-lived habits. They won’t necessarily be easy to dismiss, even though they should logically be easy to alter. You’ll need to have some determination and persistence to make some of the changes.
- Re-evaluate. Notice how well your solution worked. Is there anything you can do to improve it? Are you finding that you’re still making the same mistake over and over? If so, find a different solution and repeat the process.
- Consider going slowly. Rather than trying to implement 10 new solutions in one day, you’ll likely find it easier to tackle one at a time. After a week of success, move on to the next mistake.
- Small improvements each day or even each week are all you need to have an amazing life. Just keep at it and watch with amazement how your life changes for the better.
- Eventually, you might just want to make a quick list of your mistakes and address the entire process once a week on the weekends. Ideally, you’ll be making fewer and fewer mistakes as time goes on.
Mistakes aren’t all bad. Make the most of your mistakes by learning and then applying that lesson to your life.
Each mistake carries with it the possibility of making a permanent enhancement to your life. Avoid missing out on these opportunities. Make the most of your mistakes, and your life will become a little easier and more spectacular each day.
