[Image credit: Stuart Miles]

Last week I beat myself up over a mistake I inadvertently made.  I felt like the “biggest loser,” only not the kind who lost weight on national TV.  I think one of the reasons it hit me so hard was because I had prepared a failsafe after something similar happened.  Only I had not considered someone else dropping the ball.  It turns out another pin in the cog was responsible; however, if my failsafe had included that risk, the situation could have been prevented.  A revised plan is in place now, and I feel as ready for anything as I’ve ever been.  But even if I’m not, what matters is how I move on from something like that.  Wallowing in self-pity does nothing.  It was in proactively tracing the steps from start to finish that allowed me to find the breakdown in the process and repair it.  We’re human; mistakes are going to happen.   The important thing is learning from them.

How do you handle the inevitable mistakes?