Our nation’s financial meltdown, natural disasters, record high job losses and foreclosures, and deteriorating infrastructure have exacerbated even the smallest mistakes we make and are creating lasting and devastating effects for us and future generations. Mistakes are slowing and in some instances reversing our progress in life. The daily news reports millions of individuals who are trying to overcome the consequences of mistakes which impacted their family, money, business, or education. And let’s not forget the millions of individuals who are also bamboozled through the use and explosion of technology.
For over a year, I’ve listened to the experts talk about how to overcome and maintain or gain success, especially during these difficult times. But, if you face losing or have already lost your home, job, car, business, or 401K sometimes it’s difficult to digest the advice from individuals who have multi-million dollar “consulting” businesses, real estate, stock portfolios and learning products we may have on our shelves. Besides, do we really want or need more experts, books, magazines, DVDs, websites, or TV networks telling us what to do, how to do it, what to buy, and where to find it? We’ve come to limit our approach to learning to the “just tell me what to do” method.
I believe there are opportunities for us to progress even in these tough times. We have to inject change in the way we address issues, make decisions, manage tasks, and act on our ideas by making a concerted effort to learn what not to do to help us avoid and lessen our mistakes and greatly improve our chances for success.
I can only imagine and hope for positive change if we all contribute and share the “knowledge we’ve gained from our actions or decisions which resulted in mistakes, bloopers, or catastrophes” — affectionately called lessons learned.
So, do you believe learning what not to do can help stop our nation’s woes? Only your testimonies will tell.
Linda
