All photos courtesy of Dr. Fishbein. Dr. Fishbein rocks one of her crocheted beanies.
Learn lessons when you embrace mistakes
By Bethany Fishbein, OD
I tend to get a little obsessive about hobbies, and my latest obsession (especially now that it’s too dark out to play pickleball after work) is crochet.
Most of the time, I’m thinking about other things when my hands are busy with the hook and yarn, and it’s not unusual for me to miss or add a stitch, lose count or mess up a pattern. Of course I don’t see the mistake when I make it. Usually by the time I’ve noticed, I’ve already worked a few more rows. And until fairly recently, I’d just leave the error and keep going, telling myself that it wasn’t that noticeable or would somehow work itself out.
Spoiler: It never really does.
And I’m forever bothered by the mistake in the finished product, even if I’m the only one who can notice.
Even after I came to this realization and knew the mistake would bother me, I usually kept going because a nagging voice warned I’d lose too much time by fixing it. It’s the same trap we fall into when we invest effort or money into something that doesn’t turn out right. We convince ourselves it’s too late to change course or that going back to fix things would waste all the progress we’ve made. But the truth is, continuing down the wrong path never fixes the problem; it just makes it harder to correct later and takes away from what could have been an otherwise perfect result.
Lately, I’ve started doing something that I probably should have been doing all along: when I see a mistake, I undo it. In the yarn world, it’s frogging because you rip it, rip it—get it? I pull out as many stitches as needed to reach the mistake, mend it and continue. And you know what? It’s not that big of a deal. It takes a little extra time, but I rarely even think about it once it’s passed and the end result is so much better. Plus, I won’t be incessantly reminded of my mistake in the finished product.
The small act of undoing (or going backward for the sake of going forward) has changed the way I think about mistakes, both in life and business.
THE TRAP OF OVERTHINKING
As practice owners, we often push ahead with decisions that don’t feel right—policies that aren’t working, hires that aren’t fitting, projects that have never gained momentum—because we’ve already invested time, money or pride, and we assume that progress means moving forward no matter what.
But sometimes the most productive thing we can do is to stop pushing forward, admit something isn’t right and undo what needs undoing.
Maybe it’s the new hire who looked great on paper but has shown questionable reliability and seems to complain an awful lot, even though they’ve only worked a few weeks. You’ve invested time in hiring and training, so you’re understandably reluctant to let them go and restart the recruitment process.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO EMBRACE MISTAKES
The easiest path is to wait and hope things improve, but a poor fit quickly causes ripple effects across the office. Colleagues spend time fixing mistakes and absorb the negative attitude, slowing projects and stalling new initiatives. Over time the culture feels heavier and top performers grow frustrated, burn out or even leave.
Undoing that hire isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Just like pulling out rows of misplaced stitches, it costs time—but lets you redo the work correctly so the whole piece fits together again.
What might feel like failure in the moment is actually the most disciplined type of progress—it’s the courage to protect the integrity of the outcome over the comfort of simply moving forward.
Dr. Fishbein’s beanies
PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS
Just like in crochet, the more experience you gain, the easier it gets to recognize mistakes early and fix them efficiently. They stop feeling like disasters and become a normal, healthy (and frankly required) part of the process.
When something in your business doesn’t feel quite right, don’t be afraid to frog it. Rip back a few rows, make the adjustment and keep going forward. You’ll end up with something stronger, cleaner and far more satisfying than if you’d pushed ahead, pretending everything was fine when you knew it wasn’t.
The art of undoing isn’t about perfection but progress with integrity. If you can admit that something could be better and have the courage to fix it, you’ll end up with something you can truly be proud of.
Read another column from Dr. Fishbein.
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Bethany Fishbein, OD, is the founder of Leaders of Vision, a consulting and coaching firm for optometric practice owners. Whether you want leadership advice or a crocheted beanie, she has plenty of both to give. To contact her: bethany@leadersofvision.com |
