Whenever someone has a problem they always question why. Why did this happen to me? How do I get out of this situation. Why is this MY luck? As if they are the first person to ever have this problem. And I feel for you. Problems suck. I’ve had my fair share of problems in my life. But I have a wake up call for you. You’re not special.
No matter how bad the situation is: You’re in debt, you fail a class, get fired from a job, get divorced. Somebody else has been there before. And that’s a good thing. It’s good because that means a solution already exists. You’re just not looking in the right places for the answer.
It’s because you’re thinking with your emotions. Panic. Fear. Discontent. That’s what you feel in the moment, but it’s not how you feel when you solve a problem. You need to detach your emotions from the problem.
And then start researching. There’s always a way out. If it’s a money problem there’s ways to find money. If you fail at an interview or a test, there will be another opportunity.
You have to be able to let go. You can’t hold injustice with people. And you especially can’t keep injustice with yourself. Beating yourself up for something negative that’s already been done. It’s nonsense. There’s no way to change the past. Well unless you have a time machine, but I have yet to find one of those.
Now when you forget, you forget the emotion and the mistake. But you don’t forget the lesson. Because every mistake is a lesson. The bigger the cost the bigger the lesson. I read a business consulting book a while back. And in the book the author wrote about a time someone asked him if they would fire a good employee who made a one time mistake that costs the company $10,000. He responded, “No. Why would I fire him? I just spent $10,000 training him”.
Some mistakes are expensive and you’ll just have to live with that. But I can assure you if you make a $10,000 mistake like our friend in the anecdote, you won’t make it again. There’s some things in life that are under your control and there’s somethings that just aren’t. For the things that aren’t under control, just let them run their course.
You know I rarely argue with people. You know why? Because you’re not going to change their mind, especially if they are set in their ways. I let them talk out their anger or discontent.
You know what’s even better than learning from your mistakes? Not making them in the first place. I’m careful about almost everything in life. I’m careful about the types of people I surround myself with. I’m careful about what I spend money on. Because sometimes these things lead to problems.
They seem like small problems at first, but they can quickly escalate to big problems. You’ll figure it out. I just hope you have a chance to learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others that came before you.
