How to Rarely Make the Same Mistake Twice

Develop the habit of curating an "Issues Log" where you capture the date, the behavior, the suboptimal result it created, a recommendation resolution, and who's responsible. Mine is kept in Evernote and looks like this:

Ray Dalio introduced this idea to me as a way to treat your personal performance like a machine. Observe where the outcomes you want aren't being achieved, evaluate their root cause, develop a corrective action, and assign it a responsible party. In this case, the responsible party is always me.

Then, incorporate reviewing your issue log into your weekly wrap-up. Hopefully you'll be encouraged that another week has gone by without retreading ineffective behaviors. And respond with joy whenever you get to add an issue to the log - it's a signal that such behavior is not long for this world.

The beauty of the Issue Log is that it raises our behavior from the subconscious to the conscious, lays it bare upon the examination table, and allows us the possibility of enacting meaningful change.

The first step to rarely making the same mistake twice is awareness. An Issue Log raises awareness.

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