Failing | Learning Your Lesson

We all run into problems in our lives. And if I'm being honest it's much easier said than done to take on those problems and see them as opportunities. No one is that positive all of the time. That's why the Failing Fast mantra spoke to me. To me, it says, "It's ok to screw up. We all do it. Just try your best to do better". I love the idea of not just being positive, but truly learning from my experiences. Assessing where things went wrong and creating a plan to avoid them the next go around. Or avoid there being a "next time" altogether.

But sometimes we can find ourselves right back in the same situations, even when we thought we learned our lesson. #failingfailingfast

That person we swore we'd never speak to again. That thing we were supposed to do for the past week. KNOWING we should save our work regularly but forgetting to do it and our computer unexpectedly crashing. Sigh. Really, I'm referring to any habit for which we know better, but don't do better. Personally, I've told myself several times over that I'm going to cut back on dishes and limit myself to two of each utensil. That way, I am forced to wash, reuse and reduce my dishes. Guess how many forks are sitting in my sink right now.....

At work (now at home), I have the habit of knowing I have a meeting "some time" today, but not knowing the specific time and being caught off guard when the five minute reminder pops up on my screen. And I hate being the late black girl but sometimes it's inevitable.

So I told myself to keep my calendar open, print off my schedule so I have it handy or set reminders further out. Well I went from two screens to one working from home so having multiple windows open clutters my brain too much, I have no printer and that last suggestion is always remembered just a little too late.

So, I can beat myself up about continuously forgetting to learn my lesson. Or I can accept my shitty behavior and shrug my shoulders. Sike. Obviously there are plenty of other options.

For me, it's been helpful to not try to tackle all of my flaws at once. I can't be perfect and trying to correct too many things at a time leads to defeat and saying FTS. I give myself a reasonable goal or two for a small amount of time and go from there. So maybe I say, "Ok I need several spoons because I have mixing my tea spoon in my coffee spoon. So as soon as I'm done stirring my coffee it gets a quick rinse before it dries. Less scrubbing means less work which means easier task. Boom".

Ultimately, the lesson here is to adapt and fail at a realistic pace for yourself. Trying to achieve perfection and never repeating a mistake is impossible. Admirable, but still impossible. So learn and apply what you can. If a lesson has to be repeated, prioritize its importance and break it down to where things are going wrong and why so that you are attacking the real problem and not yourself. Set some goals, get some accountability partners, and really, just try your best, no matter what "your best" looks like on a given day.

#failingfast #fail #lessonlearned #forgot #redo #tryagain