Take a deep breath and fix it
Overcoming the anxiety of mistakes - and growing in the process
Happy Monday. Whatever mistakes befall you this week, may you recover and ultimately win. ~JRC
We're only human, and they happen. Mistakes. It's always a challenge; one made worse when we overreact. “Freaking out” clouds judgment, making the next steps more problematic - or even impossible. Thus, to move forward, we cannot panic. We need a clear head to remedy a mistake. So we must stop, collect ourselves, and then act. Indeed, this is the only way to make things right.
Easier said than done, I know.
I am a worrier. Whether by nature or nurture, I can't remember when I didn't fret about things big and small. So when it came to making something, the younger me would fear the inevitable mistakes so much that I almost willed errors into being.
With a mistake made and a project in ruins before me, I would break down. It was as if the error embodied everything wrong with me as a human being. I didn't make the mistake. I was the mistake.
Thank goodness I've grown beyond this crippling mindset.
Last week I was working on a wildlife research probe (as part of my side business JRC - Conservation Tools), and I screwed it up.
The process is quite involved, and I was at a critical mid-point step where I must encapsulate the internal workings with cast resin. At this point, the parts somehow shifted in the mold resulting in a miscast. It was a daunting mistake, as I had already spent over a day making the internal components, and now they were securely but incorrectly wrapped inside a hard shell of near-impervious plastic.
The old me would have blown a gasket. All is lost! I have to start over. Oh, woe is me.
But not now.
I literally looked at the mistake and said, "Well, crap." I didn't even use an actual swear word. Instead, I calmly considered my options, principally either starting over or trying to free the workings to do a recast. I opted for the latter because if salvaging the pieces didn't work, I'd have to scrap the whole thing and start over anyway. So it was worth a shot.
After much cutting, prying, and scraping, I recovered the workings and was able to do a recast. And this time, it worked beautifully. The result was one of the best probes I've made thus far.
I learned a few things from this mistake, as is often [always] the case. In particular, I now know firsthand how durable my probes are - it was extremely challenging getting the workings out of that hard plastic encapsulation. And the fact that the internal parts themselves survived unscathed is also a testament to the overall design and build. Now, I feel even more confident in billing these devices as durable and long-lasting.
More personally, I was pleased to see where I've come emotionally after years and years of making things. Yeah, I'm a way better craftsman than I used to be. But being a dedicated maker has helped me more than simply being good at making. Today, I am far more confident in doing, well, doing just about anything, including overcoming dreaded screw-ups.
In making, we make ourselves mentally stronger than we ever would be otherwise.
Blunders get to us all. We naturally worry about making things right. But we cannot be like the younger me; we cannot let mistakes impair us. Experience is on our side now, and with it, the confidence to know we can do this.
Even if wrong, even if we can't do something on the first try, we’ll get it right eventually. Experience teaches us this too. So when mistakes happen, don't stop. Instead, go forth.
Take a deep breath - and fix it.
Until next time.
JRC
Nice one, insightful and inspiring. As humans (funny expression; what else could we be?), we'll always make mistakes, especially when learning or trying new things and even when doing something we are proficient in. Occasionally, we'll fail. I have been okay with failing for years; it happens regularly. And I have accepted that it is part of my everyday life. It is what happens inside my brain for days or weeks after failing what I haven't been able to manage well yet. That little seemingly untamable monster in my head keeps reminding me of the failure and the embarrassment and relieves the darn thing over and over. I can let go of the mistake (throw the thing away; start the build over; write the essay again), and that's fine. I hate spending a few hours writing something and then poof! It's gone, unsaved, soaring into the ether, never to be found again. That's when I say, like you, "Oh, crap!" and start all over again. No one to blame; mistake made; buckle up and do it again.
But when the mistake involves others...hmmm, that's when the little monster rubs its grubby hands with glee. For example, I missed a thesis proposal defense from a student I'm mentoring in Mozambique Sunday. I mixed up the times (10 am vs. 10 pm PT; they are 8 or 9 hours ahead of California). After realizing my mistake (and reading the messages "We're ready!" "Are you joining us?!" because my phone was on "Do Not Disturb" — piling mistake upon mistake), I joined the presentation at the end. I was able to ask some questions and be there for a bit. But, the embarrassment of showing up red-faced in front of my student and all my colleagues there, apologizing publicly, and so on. That I haven't been able to shake off yet.
We'll always make mistakes, and we'll never stop growing. I still have some growing to do.
Good advise !! Keep trying, never give up,, We have to remember that when you make mistakes you learn from it,. Also you will get experience