I thought about this assignment a lot before actually
beginning to write it out. I am going to use an example from work as it was
something I have tried countless times and failed each and every time. At work,
there are several different excel spreadsheets that are updated daily and sent
to all the states the company I work for operates in. A few months ago I was in
charge of a specific daily update that included a report about where specific
units were (city or state). I had misread a document and put into the excel
sheet the wrong state and city which led to my boss sending out a report that
essentially was false. Therefore it led to different regional managers taking
time out of their busy day to track down something that did not exist. I was
warned about this mistake and I felt terrible! Well the next 20 times I did
this report; who makes the same mistake? The answer is this person right here
(if you could see me, it would be me). I could not seem to understand how to
read the document and update excel properly and send out the email to all the
states properly. I not only kept stating I understood and messing up but kept
assuming when I changed one aspect it made it somehow work out. The last few of
those 20 times I began to call and have a manger take over my work computer to
see the screen I was looking at and tell me what was wrong. After many
different manager explanations it made sense. It was super embarrassing and it
slowed everyone’s day each time I did this report. Luckily, I am really great
at this report and am in charge of documenting everyone’s progress on it within
my department. Crazy how things can take a complete 180.
What I learned from this repeated mistake is that it is okay to take your time and spend longer to produce what is correct. Of course this
is something we all know but not in all cases do we apply this mindset. The
department I work under has always worked very hard and is usually behind on
work. There are never down times or times when we can sit on our phones, etc.
Therefore, I felt in my mind I did not have much time to spend making this
report perfect and ensure that it had correct information. It is a report that
needs to be sent out as soon as possible so I would rush to complete it. I
learned it is great to take your time and ensure your work is fantastic and
correct. I also learned that there really are not any stupid questions to ask.
I am not the best when it comes to failure. Growing up a
dancer I was always taught to perfect my art and try not to be incorrect with
form, performance, or posture. This filtered into the rest of my life as I did
not want to fail at anything. It got really intense when I was in two different
dance companies at one time and I knew failure was bound to happen at some
point. I was honestly scared to fail! I have to say now that I am older I still
am not great when it comes to accepting my failures however I am more open to
them. I will usually be upfront with failures or that I will not be great with,
or at something, to forewarn someone (like at work!). I handle failure by
usually getting in a very bad mood. I am usually pretty spunky (caffeine free,
too) so when I am not it is usually because I feel I have failed at something.
Emotional wise, I tend to close off from others and think about what I did and
how I can make myself better or recover from said failure. I really do not deal
with failure well I must say. I am also a perfectionist and a tad OCD which
does not help either. I also find my zodiac sign agrees with me in that respect!
This course has certainly helped me to understand failure is ok and a part of
life. Everyone is human and mistakes happen. There have been numerous times
that I will log in on a Monday morning and see the work due for this week. Yet,
I would still fail to complete and submit all assignments. I do not beat myself
up over it as much as I used to. I know there will be more assignments next
week and I will just have to plan out my completion time wisely and move on. I
do not think my risk factor has increased since this course. I love talking to
random people and this class has given me the excuse to do just that. But I am
the same way about taking risks now as I was when I began this course.
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