When It Comes to Mistakes, the Earlier the Better

My ultramarathon is less than a week away, and I am questioning my sanity every time I think about running 31 miles. I have never run farther than a marathon distance (26.2 miles), and I’ve only done that twice. I have never run a trail race, which contains plenty of hills, roots, mud, and dirt. Plus, I am over 40 years old. Did I train enough, did I put in enough miles, did I run enough hills, and how many mistakes have I made along the way?

I am sure I have made plenty of mistakes in my training. Where does that get me? I can’t push the race off a few more weeks to fix my mistakes because the race date is set. I will be graded when I cross the finish line, so I have to make the most of my training time now.

Mistakes are going to happen in life. They can happen at work or at home. Accept that fact and respond. Your response plan will be based on when you recognize your mistake – early, late or too late.

1. Early (“uh oh”) – These mistakes happen frequently, and you may not even recognize them as mistakes because you are correcting them in the moment. By taking small corrective actions along the way, you still arrive at your correct destination on time. It is like piloting a ship at sea traveling to a destination with a specific arrival time. If you follow your compass heading of 270 degrees at 15 knots, you will be successful. Along the trip, you continually make small adjustments to your heading, and you will make lots of tiny mistakes and correct them almost immediately.
2. Late (“oh crap”) – These mistakes will get your attention once you realize them, but you have the ability to overcome them if you respond appropriately. They are less frequent and will require you to address them in a deliberate way. You can’t quickly correct them like you would an early mistake. You have to assess your situation, the mistake, and plan your response. You are piloting the same ship. You fall asleep at the helm for over 4 hours and veer miles off course. You should assess the dangers of your mistake (e.g., are there icebergs around?), is it a “too late” mistake (e.g., will you reach your destination on time), how should I correct the mistake (e.g., do you have enough fuel)? You have to recalculate your course and develop a new plan of action to meet your original goal. It will require more effort and resources, but it is still possible.
3. Too Late (“oh $%*&”) – You are all in, there is no turning back, and you realize that you made a huge mistake. You decide to allow one of your young first mates to pilot the vessel. You communicate the plan with him, including the heading. However, you didn’t know that he couldn’t read a compass, and he didn’t ask you what 270 degrees meant. You leave the bridge and wake up the next morning to learn that the ship is thousands of miles off course and there is no way to reach your destination in time. In fact, you will miss your scheduled arrival by more than 2 days. It is time to take responsibility and fess up. Take your medicine quickly and quietly. The sooner you get it over with, the better off you will be. If available to you, make sure to bring alternative solutions to address the mistake.

I made a “too late” mistake a couple of weeks ago. I arrived for a meeting in Covington, Louisiana, (approximately an hour east of Baton Rouge) about 30 minutes before my meeting. I killed some time at Chick-fil- A and arrived at the attorneys’ office about 5 minutes before the meeting. The only problem and my mistake was that the meeting was at the attorneys’ Lafayette office (approximately an hour west of Baton Rouge). I realized this mistake 5 minutes before the meeting and I was 2 hours away. Needless to say, I didn’t make the meeting in person, but had to dial in to the conference and apologize to the group for not being able to participate in person.

Your goal should be to identify mistakes as early as possible. You should start considering them in the planning process. You should think about what a mistake would look like, the likelihood of making the mistake, and how to address it.

I hope you identify your future mistakes in the “uh oh” phase. With regard to next weekend, I hope to survive and live to tell about it. There are plenty of things stacked against me, but I haven’t identified any “uh oh” or “oh crap” mistakes yet. I just hope that I don’t identify any mistakes in the third bucket. Wish me luck and say a prayer for me! 

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