Lessons not Mistakes

Mistakes will be made. We all make them. They may be due to carelessness, lack of understanding or information, or some other reason. Many mistakes can be corrected, all can be teachers. What I want to focus on are the mistakes of behaviors that those of us with attention deficit disorder often make and how we can reduce the kinds and numbers of mistakes in our lives.

We may frequently forget appointments, people’s names, tasks we were to do; we may lose important things, get lost ourselves, procrastinate and miss a deadline. Maybe we say inappropriate things at inappropriate times, spend too much money on something because we didn’t research the options, overdraw our checking account. Yep, we may make these and other mistakes, and we may make them with some regularity.

The key here is to use every mistake as a learning opportunity. What kind of reminder would help you remember an appointment? How might setting up online banking and checking your account daily help you know how much money you have? What if you set start dates for stages of a project as well as due dates? How might you be more successful if someone held you accountable for something you said you’d do?

This is what we do with coaching. You get to make mistakes. There’s no blame, no fault-finding. We evaluate what occurred and come up with strategies you can gradually implement.
Mistakes will always be made, but improvements can also be made.