This was a different post when I wrote it in my head the first time on my drive home from work on Tuesday evening. By the time I turned into my driveway it was this post you see before you.
Work kicked my butt on Tuesday. I made a couple of really big mistakes on an important project I’m responsible for. I said some really bad swear words and came close to shedding a few tears. It was a low point.
Then on the way home, I stopped at Home Depot. I was getting a refund on a special order they hadn’t been able to find for me. The associate said, “I’ll give you the refund, but let’s try and place the order again. I won’t charge you even if it goes through.”
Back on the road, there was a back up of cars and lots of flashing lights at the roundabout I drive through every day. As I came around the curve, I saw a bad accident with a dump truck.
And this is why my attitude had changed by the time I made it home. I had a bad day at work. That’s all it was. There were other good things that happened to me, and things could have been a lot worse.
I will still recite my mantra of “Be the duck. Be the duck.” (You know, feet paddling madly under the water but feathers smooth and unruffled above).
However, what started to play a little more loudly in my head was, “Don’t ever give up.” In fact, this mantra inspired me to dig into the boxes in my office and pull out this poster.
This hung in the office at my middle school. When I was in grade 8 I finally worked up the courage to ask one of the teachers to photocopy it for me. It’s hung on a bulletin over my various desks ever since then.
Obviously, it’s been packed away too long. It’s now back up on the bulletin board in my office here.
How was your week? Hopefully it was better than mine. Let’s all have a good weekend, okay?
Home on 129 Acres 
Good for you for turning your mood around. Love the poster. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
We are all human, we all make mistakes. It’s hard, and I know how you feel when it happens. But the most important part is how you recover from those mistakes – how you own up to them and then fix them. That’s the important part. There isn’t one person who hasn’t made at least one huge mistake – the successful people learn from them and recover well, and fix the mistakes.
I also find it helps to put it in perspective – it’s a project at work. It’s not the end of the world – at least you are not the one in that accident. I try to remind myself when I have a bad day, that it could be so much worse. I have what really matters most – my health and my children’s health.
Happy Friday, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks, Meghan. I appreciate the reminder that I learn something from every mistake.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
That’s so great that you had a perspective change by the time you got home from work. Everything is relative. Happy thanksgiving to you and your boys! 🙂
The boys are having a happy Thanksgiving so far. Hope you are too!
I am just reading this now…..I hope things have turned around at work. I know you are great at what you do and don’t forget that! We are all only human and mistakes sometimes get made…it is what you do afterwards that defines you as a person and I have all the confidence in knowing that you probably took it all in stride and have gone and made it bigger and better than it was before! I love that poster and will have to get a copy from you and put it at my desk….sometimes you need little setbacks to put everything into perspective! We need to get together soon!
Thanks for your encouragement, Catherine. Everything has worked out… and nobody was as worried about the mistakes as I was.