Applied Positivity and Mindfulness in the Face of a Mistake
You choose how you approach things after you’ve made a mistake.
I totally fucked up. All the formatting was done, my next book had been uploaded to multiple sources. It was available for pre-order. I had the audiobook submitted for approval. Ads were being run.
And yet, I made a mistake. I thought I’d uploaded the final proof to Amazon. Apparently, I did not.
The preorder was cancelled.
After an initial panic, I did my best to work out what to do. Then I got on a chat with a rep from Amazon and calmly explained my situation. After a bunch of back and forth, I thought that I’d gotten things restored.
I did not.
All I can do is reupload everything. And hope I didn’t lose too many potential fans or readers in this fuck up.
Yes, I probably lost some of my advertising money because people clicked on a link that is dead. The connection between the Kindle version and paperback on Amazon might be utterly fucked up. I have no idea what else this might impact.
I am mad at myself, frustrated, and very upset. Yet, as much as I want to scream, break something, and lash out, I’m maintaining my calm, reuploading the eBook, pausing the ads, and going from there.
This is a result of the choices I’m making. Rather than get super negative, self-deprecating, and upset, I’m choosing to pause, reflect, and act to fix the problem.
Without applying positivity and working with mindfulness, I’d be floundering here. This is an excellent example of how positivity – even in the face of surreal negativity – can impact choices and decisions and how you take control of your life on multiple levels.
It’s all about the choices you make
I realized my above mistake late at night. It was disheartening, infuriating, and my gut reaction was to explode. Throw some things around my office, knock over one of my monitors, shout and potentially upset the cats and wake up my wife, and let my dismay take control.
Twenty years ago, my rage would have won. My gut reaction is what would have dictated what came next, and it would not have been pretty. That was then, this is now. After more than a decade of working with conscious reality creation, mindfulness, and nontoxic positivity, I examined – rather than reacted to – my gut. Yes, very annoyed, very irked, urge to smash rising.
I paused, I took a deep breath, and chose to take action to approach the problem. Even when the nonsolution was given to me, I didn’t allow my distress to dictate terms, and sucked it up and resubmitted all the data to Amazon.
This was a choice. Knowing that choosing to go with my annoyance would be unproductive, I chose instead to act. Find a solution and apply it.
Because I made this choice, I empowered myself. Rather than let negativity wreck my sleep and possibly lead to destroying something, I recognized the issue, acknowledged my mistake, and acted to fix it the best way that I could. This was a mindfully made choice. I controlled my emotional state via choice rather than letting my emotional state control me.
Applied positivity and mindfulness in the face of a mistake
Rather than destroy and waste time and energy with anger and other negative emotions, I applied positivity. Applied positivity is nontoxic because it’s a choice made in the face of a negative situation.
I fucked up. There is nothing positive in that truth. The negativity could have led me to some ugly places. Instead, I chose applied positivity and took steps to fix the problem and correct my mistake.
Applied positivity is looking a negative situation in the face and more or less saying, “Not today, Satan.” Rather than get angrier, depressed, and seek vengeance on myself or an unwitting third party, I chose to recognize my mistake. Then, I acknowledged it for what it was. After that, I took steps so that I could fix it via applied positivity and active conscious awareness – i.e., mindfulness.
Sure, I could have berated myself and let my ire dominate me. I could have demanded the next level of support from Amazon and put all the blame on them. This article could have been my take-down of a system or an examination of my personal shortcomings.
Instead, I’m seeing this as a learning opportunity. I fucked up, made a mistake, and recognize how not to do it again.
As part of my conscious reality creation and mindfulness practice, I’m also choosing one last adaptation. Jen Sincero, in her brilliant You Are a Badass self-actualization book, points out that often, and I’m paraphrasing here, things turn to shit before they turn to Shinola. Okay, I’m going to apply that to this situation. Because I massively believe in this new novel I’m publishing, and am choosing to see this mistake as a sign that I am, in fact, on the right path here.
Applying nontoxic positivity and mindfulness in the face of a mistake isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing active conscious awareness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that you have the power to make choices and decisions to direct your life, and control your reaction to things like mistakes, you can make conscious choices for how to act and react. Knowing that you can choose what steps to take and apply positivity – or to allow negativity to dictate what comes next – you take the control that is your birthright.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred-and-eighty-eighth (588) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, reblog, and spread the positivity.
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