Making mistakes is okay. If anything, making mistakes is a blessing in just not so pretty wrapping paper. Regardless, it’s still a present from life to you. As long as you did your best and make something of it, it was worth working for.

Today I made some mistakes at work. For some context, I work as a server part-time and I will say, as the job may be easy some days, on other days it can easily be quite the opposite.

The shift started off smoothly as many days do. I was confident that today was the day I would be able to accomplish my goals. One, to hit an average of one hundred dollars per person in sales. Two, to reach around twenty percent of gratuity overall. Lastly, I wanted to make it through the shift with little to no “voids” or errors on my part. But, as every story goes, there is always a challenge that must be overcome in pursuit of any goal, especially new goals. And today, was the challenge of doing my best in each and every “table” I had.

However, I soon came to face the habits of my work ethic. Assuming without confirmation. Without knowing it, my habit of cutting corners had caught up to me. I would assume often of what preferences guests had, under-communicate on the needs of my tables, and also had neglected the resources around me such as my peers to better increase the quality of my service. This led to inevitable turmoil for those skipped steps were essential for not only others to stay on the same page as me, but also to prevent future problems from occurring. As such, what could have been a pleasant experience for myself and the guests, turned into a nightmare. From forgetting to input one dish, to food coming out cold, and waters not being refilled, the guests were not pleased with the direction of their experience. Another rush of thoughts began to sink in once I had stopped to take a breath. I began to think about all the events that had led up to this point of confusion and disorganization. I had sheets of check book paper scattered all around my notebook, unorganized, and illegible. Receipts were practically spilling out of my already quite large apron pockets. And yet even when I was standing still for a moment, time felt like it had passed even faster than it had been before. It was a riptide of stress and thoughts.

But in the end, all of my guests ended up leaving happy and satisfied. However, I could not help but feel an immense sense of guilt because I knew that if only I had been more organized with my order taking, more communicative, and also more interdependent on my team mates, this experience could have been smooth sailing. In this I warn you, that relishing over that could have been is not the healthiest of states to be in though. Thereon, I decided to shift my mindset. For it is true that I could have done all of those things however, will I ever truly be able to go back in time? I realized that the only thing that I could focus on now is what I have learned. Committing that to memory. And doing better the next time so that I could prevent further obstacles and ensure better experiences while enabling more room for growth rather than stagnancy due to the past.

But yes, I do feel guilty that I made the kitchen stressed. Yes, after I had clocked you best bet I did go to my car, turn on some sad music and cried it all out. And yes, my exact thoughts on the drive home were the ones that sounded like, “Why can’t I ever do anything right.” But, in the end, after going through that emotional peak, I still came back to the notion that you must focus on what you can do next. In good time, maybe even tomorrow, it will all become a thing of the past. I know that next time, I will do my best. I will keep on learning, and I can only get better from here. Give yourself some grace and think about all the things that you should be thankful for rather than the things that you should be regretting.

I am thankful for many things after this experience. I am thankful for the leads of the team for pulling me aside and being more understanding. Rather than scolding me they had talked me through on what to do next time and on the importance of working together more closely. I am thankful for the kitchen for having the patience that they did, allowing me to carry on for as long as I could. I am thankful for the guests for also having enough grace to be light-hearted afterwards and still treated me with respect. And I am thankful that I have these experiences to learn from. Because if not, how else would I have learned that communication is key, and that team work is necessary in order to create an overall better experience for everyone?

Everything is a lesson in life. The challenges, the achievements, and the mistakes. So value them, and be happy that they came across you now at this time, because the more mistakes and challenges that you face, it is simply a sign that life is giving you so many more opportunities to grow. Aim to learn different lessons everyday to prevent and solve your prior errors, and later on you will master thoroughly enough so that you won’t make the same mistake again twice.

P.S. It did get better. And I did get over it. I say this now because this is me writing two days after the whole “ordeal” and I feel better than ever. 🙂 Live life to the fullest and don’t let your lows bring everything else down. The only way to go is up from here!