Episode #74 Study Your Mistakes

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.