All of us make mistakes in life. I have made my share too. We can either forget them, try to push them away from our memories, hoping that someday we completely forget about them.
But sometimes the best way to learn from your mistakes is to carry them with you. So that every time you have a chance of making the same one again, you just have to look over your shoulder and be reminded of it. It helps if you have a good memory. This might sound like a pessimistic way of dealing with mistakes, but its not.
Try it.
On another note, my teacher once told me an interesting way to deal with anger. Anger indirectly raises your own blood pressure he said. Instead, be cool, and make the person who made you angry, angrier. To paraphrase, “Don’t get mad, get even”. We deal with inefficiency every day. Casual attitudes, broken promises, lies, traffic, road-rage, weather, clumsy spills, noisy distractions, annoying people. So many things that make us angry. The trick, he said, is to consciously keep a cool head, and use whatever power/authority you have to intelligently turn the tables around on the situation at hand.
He explained further, “Say your students bunk a lecture. Don’t shout and scream and rant at them, simply declare the topic as over. Students bunk a test. Set a tougher paper the next time! “
I have felt incredibly empowered ever since. I try to use this theory whenever I can. Sometimes after getting mad, I realize I forgot the rule: To remain cool and get even. Sometimes, I succeed. The worst part is when I get angry about forgetting not to get angry. Yes, its complicated. But imagine if everybody were to successfully implement this, we have a lot less shouting. We would see a sharp drop in anti-hypertensive medication. We would end up using more than 1% of our brains. The possibilities are endless.
Try this too.
Oh and yes, of course, the ‘getting even’ part of this trick is not recommended in case of traffic/road-rage.
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