The Best Way To Confront Your Mistakes & Move Forward
To make mistakes is human and we all make them.
Social media might have us believing that successful people rarely make mistakes, and when they do they are minor. The reality is most people make mistakes every day, but most also let the mistakes get to them. Successful people acknowledge them, take appropriate corrective action, and move on fast.
The speed of acknowledgement and moving on is critical to success.
Most People Dwell On Mistakes
Most people let mistakes balloon into guilt (the bad thing) and shame (seeing themselves as bad).
What's worse is once those feelings pop up, they can fester and create a negative cycle of thoughts. The thoughts can be crippling and make us wonder if we're really cut out for the thing at all. Once we're questioning our purpose, taking any action at all seems impossible.
As difficult as it feels, this is actually the easier cycle to get into and a much better one exists.
Instead, Give Yourself 24 Hours, Then Move On
Yes, we all make mistakes, so why should we let it veer us away from the plan?
When I make mistakes, I try to give myself 24 hours max to recognize the mistake, adjust the plan, and move on. 1 day is a long time for those who are ultra successful, but much shorter than the weeks or months mistakes used to plague me. At most, I loose 1 day of progress and can jump back in instead of grinding to a screeching halt and having to restart the lost momentum.
I'm still working on not dwelling on mistakes and the 24 hour path is easier said than done, but I've also seen how small the mistake can feel after a solid week of progress instead.
