Since the beginning of time man has found it difficult to learn from his mistakes. Two thousand years ago, Cicero stated, “To stumble twice against the same stone is a proverbial disgrace.”
Our instinct is to justify ourselves, to cover our errors, and forget about them as quickly as possible. Too rarely do we carefully analyze exactly what went wrong, and too often we find ourselves making the same mistakes again and again.
The truth is that each time we make a mistake, no matter how great or small, we have at our disposal a valuable opportunity. Through careful reflection, becoming aware of how and why mistakes occur, we learn not only how to keep from making the same ones again, but also how to prevent similar setbacks.
No one can expect to prevent every problem, but why not learn how to avoid the same thing you already dealt with last year, last month, or yesterday?
The consequences of a poor choice can last a lifetime, but so can the effects of a valuable lesson.
Does your company learn valuable lessons when mistakes are made or have you settled for simply dealing with the same frustrations over and over? You can redefine the value of your mistakes.
THINK about the mistakes made,
FOCUS on learning from them, and
EXECUTE a plan to prevent them from happening again.