Dealing with Spilt Milk

Did you know people celebrate a “Don’t cry over spilt milk” day? Well, you can join in every year on February 11th and choose optimism over regret in your life. This quirky celebration brings to mind the various facets of spilling milk (accidentally of course). The literal meaning is clear, but which is the biggest lesson, “a stitch in time saves nine”, “look before you leap”, “those who forget history are condemned to repeat it” or “let bygones be bygones”. Or as a practical person would say “Clear the mess before you move on”.

Adifferent approach would lead us to the fact that things can and do go wrong. There is no limit to the frequency or scale of things going wrong. Practice and trials may reduce the probability, but not the possibility of errors. So into self, when you observe your reaction and action in the given situation. Were you able to break away from the various labels of “mistake” or were you able But it is even more critical to remedy the situation with minimum casualties.The casualty could also be you. Typically after an error has been identified, the blame game starts and people jump to find faults and the person with the maximum hits is considered guilty. But please think, whoever may have made People are at times inefficient, careless, irresponsible, incapable, etc. but a negative outburst is never going to make things better. In fact negative outbursts just worsen the situation; they are emotionally disruptive of an environment. They can lead to a chain reaction and break up teams. Sometimes the damage is at a much deeper level impacting confidence levels, loss of self-worth or just loss of interest. The key point to remember is that mistakes happen inadvertently, but what happens after that is in your control and how you use your skills thereafter to compound the problems or make them better. Have a Great New Year, full of understanding yourself and knowing yourself better.