4 steps to help you get over a bad career decision and use it to your advantage

10.02.2015

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Everyone likely has one moment in their career or has made a career decision they would un-do if they could. We’re hoping it’s not a serious as this woman mistaking her builder’s spray foam for her hair mousse, but even if it is, we’ll give you tips to move past your decision and use it to your advantage.

Step one: Forgive yourself
If you’re still feeling bad about a particular career decision or experience, you haven’t forgiven yourself yet. Without forgiveness, you’re allocating time, energy and space in your brain, no matter how imperceptible, to analyzing your mistake. Would you continue to revisit the shortcomings of a co-worker or employee every day? No. Stop wasting time and effort that is tearing down your self-esteem, and focus on how to restore belief in yourself.

Step two: Own it
Accept that you’ve made a mistake or decision that you’ve regretted in your career, and own it. Acknowledge the action or decision that got you into the mess you’d like to forget, and deal with it. Maybe you took a job for the money or perks, and it turned out to be a disaster. Understand why you made your choice and take responsibility. If you stayed in a role too long, or if you quit too soon, analyze the reasons you made your choice and talk to the people in your life that the decision affected. Work toward mending any fences that may be shaky as a result of your choices, and focus your efforts on how to proceed in a positive direction.

Step three: Learn from it
Once you understand why you made the decision, you can identify the (potential) faulty reasoning that lead you to the conclusion, and you can avoid making the same mistake again. Craft a plan for your “future self” that takes into account what you’ve learned about yourself and what you’ll do differently moving forward.

Step four: Move forward
After you’ve forgiven yourself, owned up to your decision and learned from your mistake, you have to move forward. It’s possible that you’re terrified to make the same mistake, but take time to take the lessons that you’ve learned and incorporate them into your life. It may take some time for the change in your mindset to take effect, but if you never move forward, neither will your career.

Your career can recover from nearly any mistake. The time it takes for you to forgive yourself, take responsibility and learn from your decision is often directly proportionate to the size of the mistake you think you’ve made. Give yourself the time you need, but don’t let fear paralyze you from regaining your own self confidence and belief that you are a talented, hard-working professional. Everyone has made a mistake in their career, don’t let one misjudgment dictate your entire career trajectory.