Keen eyes noted my lack of guest post on this blog yesterday.
I do take a day off here or there. But yesterday's absence was mistake-related. I did however correct my error fast to get back on the straight and narrow.
Identifying and correcting mistakes in life makes life easier, easier and easier. Ignoring mistakes or admitting mistakes but refusing to find solutions – or delaying to find corrections – makes life miserable, hard and quite imprisoning.
Lack of Mindfulness
I tend to be a bit mindful throughout most of the day.
But I lacked mindfulness for a decent chunk of yesterday. I paid the price.
I woke at 4:45 AM for a short morning flight back to NJ, from NC. I drank a little bit of water to prevent dehydration and to also prevent any trips to the bathroom for such a short, 1 hour flight.
We landed at roughly 9 AM. I drank a few more sips but became dehydrated, compared to my usual super levels of hydration. Me and my wife then visited our friends. I sipped a bit more water but should have drank 2-3, 24 ounce water bottles. Nope. Big time mistake. But things get even better; I sat in a hot tub for 2 hours without drinking any water.
Ouch.
After exiting the hot tub I took in a small glass of H2O, ate a salty dinner and polished it off with a sugary, dehydrating, brownie.
Dizziness set in. I even experienced chills. My body does not do well in a dehydrated state because I feel accustomed to being amply hydrated.
My evening became misery, suffering and discomfort. Nausea assailed me. I did not fall asleep because even though I laid in bed, chills, shakes, heat flashes and a general malaise tortured my body and seemingly blitzed my mind, too.
I began to massively rehydrate. But after 9, 24-oz bottles of the wet stuff, my stomach felt horrible. Dehydration seemed to leave me. But gas built up to brick-like proportions in my gut. I had 2 choices; resist the urge to purge and suffer for 4-8 more hours as my body slowly but steadily achieved equilibrium, or purge to feel better immediately.
I chose the wise, fast correction. I purged to feel better fast.
ID and Correct
ID and correct your errors fast. Avoid crippling, painful, prolonged suffering consistent with ignorant individuals who resist correcting errors. All long term suffering arises in beings who do not spot their mistakes quickly. A select few identify their errors but few of these folks correct their mistakes fast.
Observe most human beings. Humanity seems largely depressed, downtrodden and bound for not spotting and correcting their personal mistakes with the quickness.
As a post update, 24 more hours elapsed since I began writing this post. Our house sit in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey evaporated in roughly 12 hours. The homeowners flashed serious red flags immediately. Both were kind, generous and nice enough but neither was there fully, mentally. I have compassion for both but when one homeowner left to drive herself to the airport without telling us – when she implored me to drive her the prior night – and the other homeowner did not notify us he'd be staying home, my wife and I avoided making a big time mistake. We left the house sit immediately. Bizarre behavior punctuated by a complete lack of communication meant we needed to move on, quickly.
Of course, the 2nd homeowner could care for the pets. But making the mistake of sticking around after spotting roughly 5-10 red flags in a few hours of being in the home inevitably leads to an unpleasant experience with the 2nd homeowner and pets.
We spotted an error before the mistake manifest, allowing us to avoid future headaches that would have unfolded.
Spot your mistakes.
Connect your errors.
Put your ego to the side.
Establish peace of mind and reduce your headaches substantially.