HOW TO RECOVER FROM MISTAKES AND REGRET
We don’t talk enough about in business and in life is how awful it feels to make mistakes or really f*ck something up (or at least feel like we did - whether or not anything is actually a mistake is a matter for another, more spiritual discussion).
Then trying to clean it up or fix it can feel even worse.
I am THAT Instagram meme, lying in bed at night with wide eyes, torturing myself over a mistake I made five years ago. Or twenty years ago.
I feel this across all areas of my life, but most acutely when I look back on closing my beloved company Uplift back in 2019: in doing so, I not only recognized how many mistakes I’d made along the way in running the company, but I also know now that I made plenty of them in closing it too.
Being a strong woman in business (especially in the entrepreneurial world) means constantly having to make tough decisions, and I had to make a ton of them as I faced the end of the company.
With those, came a lot of regrets and wishing I could have or would have done something differently.
Here’s what I know about making mistakes in business and life:
Everyone makes them, lots of them
We’re going to keep making them (maybe the same or similar ones for a while until we learn that lesson, then different ones)
Having the guts to put yourself out there and do big things in the world means, sorry, you’re going to be making MORE mistakes than the average bear
Here’s what I know about how to become a better person from all the mistakes in business and life:
Being vulnerable and talking about your mistakes - admitting them - is the surest way to recover from them
Understand the the mistakes I made were made from a place of 27 Leannes ago (this idea is inspired by the excellent podcast episode by Rob Bell That Was 13 Robs Ago) - as they say, I did the best with the tools I had (both inside and outside myself) at the time
Forgiving yourself is the hardest but most necessary part of all of this
Knowing that being aware of the mistakes you make, and regretful of them, means you’re on a growth path.
Looking back, I see that all of the decisions I’ve made - especially the ones that were mistakes - offer me a roadmap to figuring out how I can be a better person.