Own your mistakes and learn!

A man should be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
John C. Maxwell

How do we handle our mistakes is very important.
The other day I was in house where the mother prepared a dish which was not good. She is a very good cook and it was very unusual of her to have messed up the recipe.
The husband reacted very sharply and was angry. I noticed that the wife was even more upset not because she messed up the dish, but because her husband got angry!
We should understand that we cannot decide how others should react and respond to our mistakes. We may expect others to be considerate and not get angry and ignore the same. But the problem is when we get upset if our expectations are not met. In fact we are unfair in our expectations!

The best thing to do in such occasions is to accept and unconditionally regret our mistake and take others’ reactions and response as very natural. This will help us in two ways, one, we will be very careful to avoid such mistakes again, and two, we will not lose our rapport with others.

May be it is a good idea to reflect how you behaved in a similar situation in the recent past!

N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
00000