Introduction 2

Take responsibility. Understand that your mistake is your own. Take the responsibility that is yours and avoid blaming it on someone else.[2] If you play the blame-game then you cannot learn from your faults, and you may continue making the same mistakes over and over again.

• Write down the parts of the problem that you contributed to, or the specific mistake you made.

  
  

• Identify things you might have done differently to produce a better outcome.

  
  

Think of past solutions. [3] One of the best ways to solve a problem or mistake is to identify how you have solved similar problems or mistakes in the past. Think thoughts such as, "I have remembered things in the past, how did I do that? Oh yeah, I wrote them down in my calendar and checked it several times a day!"

• Make a list of similar mistakes you've made. Identify how you dealt with each mistake and if it benefited you or not. If it didn't then it probably won't work.

  
  

Consider your options.[4] Think of as many possible ways to fix the mistake as you can. In the current example, there are many options: you could clean the bathroom, apologize, offer to clean another part of the house, negotiate, plan to do it the following day, etc.

• Use your problem-solving skills to think of possible solutions to your current issue.

  
  

• Create a pros and cons list for each possible solution. For example, if you identified that one possible solution to your issue of forgetting to clean the bathroom is to make sure to clean it tomorrow, a pros and cons list might look like this: Pros - the bathroom will get clean eventually, Cons - it will not be clean today, I might forget tomorrow (I can't completely ensure that it will get done), it doesn't help to solve my problem of forgetting to clean the bathroom. Based on this assessment, it may be better to clean the bathroom the same day if possible, and develop a plan to remember to clean it in the future.