You received your graded paper, the paper that you worked all summer, only to get a D. You worked hard and overnight to rush through a project for a customer, only to have it rejected outright within minutes of submission. You walked into the office on Monday morning to be called into your boss’ office to get scream at for a project that you weren’t even in charge of.
What happens when your good is not good enough for others? Do you vent frustrations on yourself, on others? Do you push responsibility to others and not yourself? Do you blame yourself and wish you can die on the spot?
It happened to me too!
In fact, it can happen to anyone and everyone. Nobody is perfect to begin with and sometimes expectations are not align or there is misunderstanding in the communication or maybe you are just having a bad day. We’ve all been there. You are not alone.
While you may feel angry and disappointed, don’t feel helpless because there are plenty you can do to move forward.
Don’t Blame Yourself (Too Much!)
First of all, you can take the blame if it is truly your fault. But don’t let the blame and all the negative thinking that follows dwell too long.
We love to store bad feelings in our minds and start to relive those moments where we can do it again or walk through the scene again but this time do things or act differently.
By blaming yourself but not taking useful preventive measures isn’t taking responsibility for your shoddy work. We all have someone in our life that only keep whining about the bad stuff happening in their lives but not taking any action to remedy against it.
Lesson Learnt
Mistakes are where we learn to be better. Go through your work and find out where the mistakes are.
Are they there because you are careless or because you lack of knowledge?
Take this time to reflect on how you can avoid making those mistakes again (especially if it due to carelessness). Write down an action plan on how you can prevent yourself from going down the same road.
If you are careless, stick a post-it at your desk to remind yourself to check thrice before any submission.
Get It Off Your Chest
Ask for help.
Talk through it with your coworkers or fellow students. Show your work to a subject matter expert.
Most importantly, talk through your emotions with someone close. It is bad to harbour I’ll feelings about yourself or the person who puts you down. What has been done is done.
Having negative feelings means you are carrying the burden of anger, disappointment and blame. The quicker you relinquish those bad feelings, the quicker you’ll recover from the battlefield and live to fight another day.
Improve Yourself
Lack of skills that hamper you from doing your best?
Then you need to upgrade yourself. Don’t wait for the company to send you for courses when there are plenty of online courses available and many of them are free like on Coursera.org and edX.org.
It is always good to load up on relevant skills to help you in your work scope. It looks good on resumes and it may come handy one day when you need to hunt for a new job or change into a new industry.
It also shows that you are proactive (rather than reactive) towards improving yourself.
Make Sure You Do Better
The one thing that will instantly make you feel better is that you have proven yourself to be able to move forward and do better than the last time. So if you follow all the tips suggested in this article, you’ll be able to succeed in your next project!
Do you have better tips to guard against failures? Share with us on your experiences in the comments below.
For my special tricks to increase your productivity at work so you don’t have to slog over your desk overtime:
6 Apps that increase Your Productivity
Being Productive @ Work: What Are The 5 Time Wasting Things You Do At Your Desk
Work Hacks that will Save You Time
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MiddleMe 
Your first thought should be Failure is not an option. Learn to look at the image of the thought being presented once you mastered that you will do fine. Learn with your eyes narrow the image down to one single point throughout the filler words. Asking others will only distort the the image of the thought.
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Thank you, Ron for your sound advice. Very insightful indeed. Have an awesome weekend!
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You to young Lady
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Kally post very real about real life situations. The only secret is not to give up and keep fighting. I liked your article.
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Thank you, Dan. Enjoy your weekend!
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Thank you Kally, enjoy it too!
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Hard work must be paid for and most employers want returns on poor pay outs . Get degree and self employed in law as i did never look back. Keep tax returns clean always.
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Love the tips💛
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Thank you!
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That’s an awareness tips well written. This would help lot of depressed souls out there. Keep up👏✨✍️
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Thank you, Simon. Enjoy your weekend!
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◇ How you feel when someone copies your work and gets a higher mark; 😆😅😄😃😂😁😀😉 Diamond Hard
…◇◇◇…
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Copying is a form of flattery. Haha! Enjoy your weekend!
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Bad days or situations happen to everyone. The biggest difference is our reaction towards it.
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True that! Love your positive angle. Have a wonderful weekend!
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Have a lovely weekend too! 🙂
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It is only natural when creating an essay, to hope that this is your best work. When we find out that it was not what we thought, it is time to prepare the endeavor with more detail and focus. How many times have you “been there, done that”? You have opened an area for deep thought.
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Wise words. I love that. Too many times for been there and done that for me.
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You are the wise one.
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Thanks Kally, a really important POST.
If we can’t forgive ourselves, we’ll never be able to forgive others.
If we are unable to forgive others we will never have inner peace.
So for the sake of you’re mental health; forgive yourself and others and move on.
God Bless
Patrick
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Ah.. love your wisdom, Patrick. I always love positive comments! Have a wonderful weekend, my Friend.
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Forgiveness is an essential life skill!
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Totally!! Have an awesome weekend! Good to see you back here.
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Thanks, Kally. I enjoyed my visit. 🙂
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A good worker always does a good job.
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All great tips Kally, we often forget that mistakes are ok, and we can learn from them.
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I never mind makeing mistakes, I learn something each time. But if I know I have done something well and someone is still not happy with it then that’s not on me. They may never be happy with it no matter how good it is. I pity them.. what an unhappy way to go through life. Still.. at that point I am glad they showed me what they are like so I know to avoid them in the future.
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
MIDDLE ME…KNOWS THIS PERSONALLY!
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In terms of therapy, I’ve found myself best served by a little wax doll and a handful of pins.
Seriously.
The old voodoo witch doctors had a clue or two. Expel your anger and get on with your life. Ask the gods to punish those who oppress you, then get back to it. In most cases you get over your pain naturally anyway in a few days. And if a grand piano does fall out of a window on top of the idiot who was giving you hell, consider it a bonus.
Just don’t get greedy. The gods aren’t exactly swimming in grand pianos.
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Seriously, I totally wasn’t expecting this comment. Thank you for sharing a different light to this situation.
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Reblogged this on Alessandria today @ Web Media Network – Pier Carlo Lava.
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Another great post, Kally! Keep them coming because I enjoy them all and appreciate your will to get them all out there to us.
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Unjust self-blame is a terrible thing, Kally. I admit that I’m very bad about engaging in it. I’ve known for years that I need to work on “deserving.” It can be very hard to overcome one’s upbringing, but I try. I think we are all works in progress. Thanks for your encouraging post. Hugs!
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This is an excellent article Kally!
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Thank you, Robert. Big hugs. Missing you around here. I still have the pic of the rose you’ve given me some years back. 🙂
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I’m honored that you still have the photo Kally. It’s a pleasure to catch up with your blog. It’s come a long way. Congratulations!
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Oh yes, you are one of my longest blog friend!
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We’ve been following each other a long time, Kally. I love how your blog has grown.
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Reblogged this on Art by Rob Goldstein and commented:
What do you do when your best isn’t good enough?
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Thanks for sharing this out, Robert.
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Very well penned
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Very well said
I will add , that without to blame yourself which is not positive , you have to be convinced that ALL what happen you , in bad way as well in good way , is your fault
If you are willing put the fault on an other person who did it , you Simply forgot that you have choose him or choose to let things do , so you will take the Lesson of it and make a better choice the next time
As please don’t forgot tomorrow will happen new things , bad or good , and it will never stop
have a nice day and never forgot the chance is with you
Douglas
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Another great post, Kally. I tend to hold onto negative feedback, and that’s not healthy.
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I used to do that too! Overthinking bad feedback does nothing for me in the Long run. Now I just do my own thing.
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My people have a saying for this, it’s called “Cowboy up!” Get off the ground, pick up your hat, and get back on the horse. every decent cowboy in the world has been thrownn by a horse. the secret is to get back on it.
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Oooo… I love this one. Thank you for sharing this with us, William. Hee haw!
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I really enjoy reading from you . You are a motivator.
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Thank you for your support!
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