We all make mistakes, you, I and even celebrities like Ellen Degeneres do. We can’t guarantee perfection even at work. Being late, being rude to officemates, or even the simplest things like failing to segregate our trash are mistakes that we commonly do every day.
A simple apology can resolve simple mistakes, but what if you mess up with your job? To the extent that it compromises not only your work but also your life? That it puts you at the point where everyone thinks that you’re a fool? And that you feel nothing but embarrassment?
You might feel that it’s the end of the world, that your professional integrity is hanging by a thread. Well it’s not, pause for a while, and here’s what you’re going to do:
Admit Your Mistake and Don’t be Arrogant
It’s normal to allow yourself to feel bad about what you have done. You can be frustrated, distressed, and even feel angry at yourself. Your boss will criticize you, and you might want to defend yourself but you can’t because it was your mistake.
When it happens, all you need to do is, let the people who are involved know that it was your mistake. Don’t try to put the blame on other person and take full responsibility of what may happen, because, in times like this, humility is always the best weapon.
Keep Things in Perspective and Learn From Your Mistake
Making a mistake can be a discouragement, you might lose hope in everything you do, and you tend to drag yourself down. Yes, it’s difficult to stay calm when suffering from frustration. But, you need to get hold of yourself no matter how terrible it is.
You must maintain your positive perspective, to avoid succeeding mistakes. Remember that your mistakes don’t define you. Keeping things in perspective regardless of what happened can open up new opportunities.
Bear in mind that perfectionism doesn’t exist, everybody makes mistakes, and all you need to do is to learn from it and turn those mistakes into new opportunities.
React, Resolve and Have a Game Plan
Making a mistake can be traumatic, it can affect your morality at work. That’s why you need to take action so that you won’t make the same mistakes again.
First, ask yourself the questions; How, When, and Why did it happen? Calculate all your doings, indicate all the possible reasons for your mistake and then take action. Make a plan that answers the questions; How you’re going to prevent the same mistakes in the future? Or what do you need to do about it?
For example; You failed to meet the deadline for your work, it messed up almost everything, and you don’t know what to do. It’s maybe because you did not do well while working. You have the time, but you just chilled out and hung around, that’s why you crammed and failed. With this kind of situation, think of a plan or action to prevent this from happening again.
Take Care of Yourself
Stress, lack of sleep, and an unhealthy diet can be the reasons why you mess up with your work. You don’t consider your health anymore, you just work, work, and work. In fact, most us nowadays, stay up all night just to finish the things that we need to do.
You tend to forget the essential things for your health. In the morning, you don’t do exercise anymore, and you can’t even have breakfast because you’re already running late at work. This unhealthy lifestyle contributes to job burnout that can be the root of mistakes at work.
To avoid making mistakes and poor performance at work, you should work on your diet and exercise. Practice living a healthy lifestyle for it provides positivity and improves confidence when you work.
So, start managing your time and live healthily. Sites like Deal Wiki could also provide helpful exercise tools for you to use when you exercise.
Regain Trust
After making a mistake, you can’t guarantee that your superior would still trust what you do, they will probably look down on you and might question your abilities. With this matter, you need to rebuild the trust that they gave you.
Regaining trust can be challenging because it is one the fundamentals of company’s success. Once you destroy trust, it is difficult to regain. But this doesn’t have to be a discouragement to you and don’t lower your confidence at work. Instead, get up and show them that you can do better than your mistake.
Reinvent yourself, be best at your work, and do it better than yesterday. These things can’t instantly regain the trust of your boss, but if you consistently do this, it might not only restore the trust of your boss but put you to the candidacy of promotion.
Move Forward
Mistakes you’ve done might cause you a lot of trouble and pain. However, once you’ve started to manage errors, it’s now time to move on. Do not inhabit yourself to the negativity of that particular mistake. Instead, count it as one of your most terrible experience and learn from it. Don’t forget to forgive yourself, and then move forward.
Takeaway
We have no supernatural powers to be perfect. We all make mistakes every single day. At work, we always want to be efficient but we really can’t avoid making errors because we are humans. Mistakes are catastrophic and impact everything, that is why we need to know how to deal with it.