Mistakes often makes us feel wronged and deeply hurt, but the next worse thing that could happen is trapping us in an inmoble, unactionable mental state. The idea of fault and responsibility mentioned in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck could be an antidote (at least it did for me).
Remove fault from responsibility gives a better look at the event. It might not be our fault that things went wrong and very often it’s not, but we are responsible for whatever happened on us. With an acceptance of who’s fault it is, we have a better chance to detach emotion from the truth. Yeah, so if I’m the one who fucked up, then also just admit it and move on.
Let’s move on to responsibility. We’re responsible for the interpretation of the event and the action we will take. The example given is step on a pile of dog shit on the street. Fault? Nope. Responsibility: fuck, this could be a sign to take the day in a slower pace (interpretation) and a chance to get a new pair of shoes (action).
Same idea applies to work, my job at marketing constantly requires teamwork. Sometimes, the product development delays and it’s not in our control or fault. But we’re still responsible for it, we must make decision and take action, either we wait or move on to the next project.
At the end of the day, it’s about moving on with our live, not trapped in the past. This idea of fault and responsibility disengage what we have no control of (fault) from what we have (responsibility).