If you know me, you know I make a lot of mistakes. I waste little time taking action and moving quickly. However, this increase in speed can backfire if I start going in the wrong direction (which happens often). This can sometimes leave me feeling lost and confused (which I discuss in my “What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do” post).
So, in this post, I’m going to talk about how to get back on track quickly.
Stop what you’re currently doing
In order to get back on track, you’ve got to take a break from what you’ve been doing.
Now, I don’t mean you need to stop doing everything you’re doing. If you’re like most of us, you’ve got responsibilities and bills that have to get paid. So, keep doing the bare essentials necessary to live.
However, take a break from anything related to the area of your life you feel is off track.
You can’t fix a train that’s still moving.
For example, when I was trying to get out of the hood, this was one of the things I did that helped me realize that not only was my environment a hindrance but a few of the people I was hanging with were doing things that forced them to stay in the hood (like buying expensive items and spending the majority of their time trying to seduce women). It wasn’t until I stopped hanging with them for a while and stopped going outside that I started to question how much this lifestyle was worth possibly being stuck in the hood.
Examine what you were doing (and why)
Now that you’ve stopped the “train”, we can identify both how and why you got here.
You might think this requires a massive amount of thought (and sometimes it does) but I find that a majority of the time, you only need an hour or two max. We’re not doing rocket science and there’s no correct “answer”.
You really only need to ask the following 3 questions in order to examine what you were doing:
- What was I doing?
- Why was I doing it?
- Will that still get me to where I want to be?
Now, If you answer “I don’t know” to any of the above questions, that signifies that you have a problem with your overall plan.
For example, if you answer “I don’t know” to the question “what was I doing?” – on the surface, that tells me you either deviated from your plan or had no plan at all.
If you answer “I don’t know” to the question “why was I doing it?” – on the surface, that tells me you didn’t make your plan detailed enough to visualize the importance of every step (or you had no plan at all).
If you answer “I don’t know” to the question “will that still get me to where I want to be?” – on the surface, that tells me you’ve basically lost sight of how the work you were doing fits into the big picture of your overall goal (or you had no plan at all).
That’s it. Once you examine what you were doing and why – you should have a good idea of the positive changes you can make to get back on track.
Write down your mistake
Failure and making mistakes are all a part of making progress. You can’t have success without failure.
With that said, one mistake a lot of people make (myself included) is that sometimes we repeat our mistakes. For me, this happens after weeks or months go by and, even though I say I’m going to remember not to make the same mistake again, I forget about the mistake and make the same mistake again.
To combat this habit, I started keeping a “mistake log” that I reference a couple of times per month to remind myself of the mistakes I made (so that I can avoid repeating them).
This “mistake log” can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet that looks like this:
| Date | End Goal | Mistake I Made |
|---|---|---|
| enter date | enter goal | enter mistake |
That’s it. Keep it simple. Your end goal isn’t to make the most awesome “mistake log”. The more complicated you make the process, the less likely you are to be consistent.
Get back on track
At this point of your journey, you should know what mistakes you made and have an idea of what you need to do in order to get your life back on track. Use this new information to create a plan of action that you can follow.
It may sound redundant to create a plan even though you know what you need to do in order to get your life back on track but I promise it’s not. You may know what you need to do right now but it’s very easy to get distracted once you start taking action and life starts throwing problems your way.
The plan serves as a map of motivation that you can use even when you get distracted by life. Since it was created by you when your mind was clear and focused on getting your life back on track – you can keep referencing it to make sure that you stay focused.
If you’re still unsure of what needs to be done, spend more time examing what you were doing (and why). The answer needed to get back on track lies in what you were doing that caused your life to feel ‘wrong’. You just have to be honest with yourself, accept that you made a mistake, and focus on identifying that mistake so you can avoid making it again in the future.
Recommended Reading: How Minding My Own Business Changed My Life
Final Thoughts
That’s how I get back on track after making mistakes.
It’s not glamorous or some kind of secret strategy that only successful people know about. But, it’s simple and effective. Regardless of what you’re going through that made you feel like your life isn’t going the way you want it to, this process will help you.
For example, if you were trying to lose weight – it would be easy to tell you that you just need to eat healthy and exercise in order to get your life back on track. However, unless I know you and your situation well, I can’t be certain that advice is what will help you get back on track.
Your problem could be from eating unhealthy and lack of exercise, but what if your problem is that you’re eating the wrong amount of calories? Or what if your problem is the type of exercise you’re doing isn’t that effective for the goal you’re trying to accomplish?
As you can see, telling you to eat healthy and exercise may be the correct strategy for losing weight but it doesn’t mean it’s the correct strategy for getting your life back on track.
However, the process I talk about in this post will allow you to figure out what you need. Nobody knows you better than you and, with the right process, nobody is better at helping you than you.
Recommended Reading: Enough Is All We Need To Be Happy
