Episode #74 Study Your Mistakes
Admitting our shortcomings is a prerequisite to personal growth, but it’s only the first step. This week, Dr. Michael Brown and Dan Costello challenge us to lean in, look closely, and learn from our mistakes.
Show Notes
We sent an email out and said, ‘We screwed up. This wasn’t the right way.’ This is a pandemic. People want to feel like work isn’t the most important thing in their lives right now. And so we said, ‘Friday’s off.’Dan Costello
Three Problems
- We often forget about our mistakes so quickly that we don’t have the opportunity to learn from them.
- The inability to study our mistakes leads us, inevitably, to replicate them.
- Our mistakes never take place in a vacuum, but they always affect the people around us.
Three Principles
- The first step to studying our mistakes is to accept that they are mistakes.
- A mistake doesn’t become a failure until we have failed to learn from it.
- Regular review of our mistakes normalizes them and helps us to feel less discouraged by them.
Three Practices
- Implement the practice of Why Wednesdays by weekly asking the questions, “Why am I doing the things that I’m doing?” and “Are they accomplishing the results that I desire?”
- Write down a list of mistakes that you have made in the past, consider who was hurt by each mistake, and identify what lessons you can learn.
- Create a regular rhythm of studying your mistakes – both personal and professional.
Related Dimensions
Related Episodes
Admit Your Mistakes
It’s a fact: no one is perfect. But that doesn’t stop us from pretending that we have it all together, does it? This week, Dr. Michael Brown chats with Gabe Dunbar about what it looks like to take off the masks we wear and own our shortcomings.
Leverage Your Past
Each life is a story, and every story has some chapters filled with triumph and other chapters filled with failure. This week, Dr. Michael Brown and Dan Costello talk about reading your story, knowing your story, and writing the rest of your story well.
Rejection Is Normal
Wouldn’t life be so much easier if our batting averages were always 100%? This week, Dr. Michael Brown and wedding photographer Jenna Greenawalt give us a framework for responding to failure, disappointment, and being told No.
