Ever make a mistake? Duh! Who hasn’t? Whenever you make a mistake, don’t view it as a failure.

One of the differences between successful, happy people and others is how they learn from their mistakes. So view it as something that you can learn from. Give yourself constructive suggestions for how you can deal with the situation the next time it occurs, in order to reduce the likelihood of another mistake.

Here’s a simple technique that can help you to clarify what was involved in your mistake and what you can do about it:

• In a notebook, or on a piece of paper, write down what your mistake was. Try to include as much detail as you can. For example, write down what you did (or didn’t do), when this happened, where, with whom, etc.
• Then try to explain why the mistake happened. Also, write down if this is the first time the mistake happened, or has it happened before (if so, were the circumstances the same or different?).
• Then reread what you’ve written, and underline any parts of what you’ve written that you can learn from or do differently.
• Start writing again, and indicate what you might try to do differently the next time, or in other similar circumstances. What would you say or do differently? How would you think differently? How might you anticipate someone else’s behavior, comments, reactions, etc., differently?
• If you have difficulty figuring out what helpful suggestions to write, you might want to ask others for advice.

Even if you don’t immediately get the opportunity to put your new ideas into operation, just the fact that you’ve written this down, showing that you’re trying to learn from your mistake and move forward, will help you to feel better.