Last week, I discovered two blunders I made that really impacted my attitude and obstructed my vision. Has this ever happened to you? You know, I can usually handle the great big mess-ups, but it's the little dumb ones that really twist my brain. In my mind, these two blunders, and many that are just like them, should never have happened in the first place. I am more careful than that! I am better than that! (Or so I tend to think.) Oh boy, are these ever good times when I can get into some real low, down and dirty, negative self talk. Kind of reminds me of driving down a South Dakota highway at dusk, when all the insects pelt your windshield until you can't see a thing, except the bugs!

But then I remember that the only way I know to remedy my messy situation is to stop, get out the bug washer, and scrub a bit, so I get a better view of where I am going. Many times, I try to get by without stopping, thinking I am in too much of a hurry to get to where I am going. It would only take a minute or two, to stop, but if I choose to keep going, I only get more and more frustrated. However, if I choose to take the time to pull over, I can soon get a much clearer perception of things and am able to head on down the road.

So, it is with my blunders. When I am beating myself up for screwing up, I just need to take the time to remind myself of the fact that it is people who are doing things that are going to make mistakes, and I ask myself if I would rather be doing nothing, so nothing can happen to me, or doing something and once in awhile making a faux pas or two. Before long, I am able to continue on my way, feeling a bit more positive about things, because I realize that I am the kind of person who loves to have my hands in many projects, all at once-just like most every other successful person I know.

What are the little things that are getting in your way? Lost slips of paper with important information on them? Forgotten appointments? Miscommunications? Passing on the wrong information? Whatever it is, you find yourself spending valuable time you don't really have to spare, stewing about a situation. That's a bug that is clouding your view of things.

Lately, I think I have probably invested three hours every day, just trying to get caught up, taking time all along the way to clean up the bugs in my thinking, so I can see more clearly. And if you want to get a better view of things, that's exactly what you will need to do, too. It's time to get the grime scraped off, so you put your blunders into their proper perspective and see the job at hand more clearly, for it is vital to be able to see the road ahead. You never know what lies just beyond the next curve.

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