The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing you will make one.I work very hard at accepting that mistakes happen. I make them, someone I was depending on makes them, everybody makes mistakes. One of the things that I learned in counseling is that I totally freak over the smallest mistake. I agonize and try to fix the unfixable and sometimes the inevitable. To help myself over come the debilitating reaction to making mistakes I bought a book of Sudokus and then did them in ink. If I made a mistake I would put a big X across the page and move on to the next one. I became much better at doing Sudokus but I still freak over every mistake. Today someone I worked with assumed I knew that I would be driving to several locations to pick up people that I didn't know. Without prep time, I got lost. (Actually with prep time I can still get lost, I just leave early enough to get lost and still be on time.) So I was late then I couldn't find one of the people then to drop them off the line of cars waiting would have taken an hour so I had to replan on the fly and solve the problem without any real idea what to do or how to accomplish and impossible task. Take a deep breath...I can't fix the problem. I talked myself through the rising panic. The fear of making a mistake can paralyze as completely as actually making the mistake.
That actually sounds like someone else's mistake that you solved on the fly!
ReplyDeleteI was raised by perfect people who, to this day, never make a mistake. Now, I realize I don't have to be perfect for anyone, especially not myself. What a relief and the dust bunnies under the bed feel much safer!
Glad you muddled through!
Hugs P/M
Thanks mulderfan, I hadn't thought of it this way. Interesting perspective.
ReplyDeleteGood for you working it through.
ReplyDeleteIt's no surprise you're afraid of making a mistake when you were punished for the slightest infraction, and sometimes the infractions were imaginary. How does one plan against such human-created impossibilities?