So you've made a mistake. You dropped the ball. You blew it / choked. You failed. (Some people have a hard time ever owning up to that last statement.)

And, if you had your druthers (your own free choice or preference), you'd go back and fix your mistake. Right? You'd change what you did. You'd walk back away from that cliff  ~ of the investment you made, the direction you chose, the person you hired / fired, the chance you took ~ whatever it was.

And if you had to do it all over again, you wouldn't do what you did. Right? You would do things differently.

I'd like to suggest that you do things differently NOW than you did in the past to avoid making the same mistake again. (Some people need to read that last sentence a couple of times and let it sink in as a means of evaluating their life.)

To go along with that, take to heart the following list which is meant to help you minimize the times you flub (make a mess of something)...

7 Things to Remember About Mistakes:

1. You will make some from time to time (nobody's perfect).
2. You don't have to repeat them.
3. Some lessons can only be learned through mistakes (and no other way).
4. You just might be better off having made a mistake.
5. Some beat themselves up over their mistakes (don't do it).
6. Sometimes a mistake turns out to be a good thing.
7. Admitting mistakes is a sign of character.

BONUS: Go easy on others when they make a mistake since you're a mistake maker, too. :)

How do you say, "I love you"? On Valentine's Day some of us say it with flowers, balloons, cards, candy, coffee mugs, candlelight dinners, overnight stays, etc. But there are more ways to say, "I love you," than these.

I was brainstorming to come up with a list of words that probably aren't at the top of our minds when it comes to expressing love, but they are ways we say it, nevertheless.

See if you agree with...

T A H O E from Shortt and Epic Productions on Vimeo.

(If you can't see this video, click here.)

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(If you can't see this video, click here.)

This post is an attempt to get two birds with one stone. I want to talk about recycling old blog posts (the second part of the title). I've read a lot about doing it on other blogs. But it really wasn't until recently that I got into the recycling business myself ~ and in the following new way: via infographics. (Another term for infographic is: data visualization.)

And I didn't really start noticing infographics until recently. And I've become fascinated by them. (How 'bout you?) A cool site to check out is: http://visual.ly/. There you'll find a searchable database of infographics / data visualizations, many of which offer html code so you can embed them on your own blog or website.

INFOGRAPHIC "HOW TO"

But I wanted to make my own infographics rather than just posting others, is really where I found myself. And so I was able to devise a way using Microsoft Publisher. I want to share that with you here as a "how to."

TWO EXAMPLES

Both of the infographics you see here are my creations and meant as examples for you. (Click either image to enlarge, then in new browser tab or window click again.)

BACKGROUND SCHEME

Each infographic is a little bit different (obviously). The first one has just a color background (tan) while the other has a Christmas tree background (clip art). So that's where you start with some kind of background scheme. (I get my clip art free at microsoft.com.)

TEXT COLORS

Then you decide on text colors that complement your background. I've got four in each (with white included). I probably wouldn't go beyond that.

BRAINSTORM TOPICS

Next (and really you could / should do this initially) is to brainstorm and research your topic. Christmas was a pretty easy one as you can see. Each of the terms is just a text box and I mostly choose to use Arial as my font while varying the size. It gives an attractive tone.

In the other infographic (at the top) I googled information on New Year's resolutions and found a good article with stats, then used Microsoft Excel to create the graphs (which is just so easy to do if you know Excel).

RECYCLING OLD BLOGS

Still in the same infographic I want you to notice the "17 Resolutions NOT to Keep in the New Year" area which is my giving that old blog post new life emphasis now. That was a blog from the past, all text ~ which, of course, I could have just re-broadcast like that, but instead I was able to package it in a different and visually appealing way.

FINAL STEPS

Final steps in completing your infographic: select all fields (Ctrl-A), then group lock. Then right click anywhere on your creation, save as a png picture file, change resolution to commercial printing (very important) and voila!

You've got an infographic (created by you) to upload to your own blog or website.

I'd love to hear if you tried this "how to" out. :)

You might also be interested in:

• 10 Commandments of Blogging [infographic]
• Recipe For A Real Estate Recovery [infographic]

On the mountain long ago Moses received God's law. I haven't been up to a mountain or anything, but I thought I'd use this pattern to make some points about blogging (and micro-blogging, too, if you're in to social media like Twitter).

So here you go with the 10 Commandments of blogging...

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(To read the original Ten Commandments of Blogging and the 100+ comments, click here.)

Let's just cut to the chase. We like the old better. Right?

We like how we've always done things, the patterns we've set, the routine we've got going ~ regardless of if it's working anymore (bringing in business, helping us to reach a goal, positively enriching our lives).

Maybe it hasn't worked for a long, long time (or never at all)?

It's just hard to do something new. Because that would mean we would have to change. We would have to learn. We would have to adapt, think, grow. And that's uncomfortable. We don't like uncomfortable.

Neither do we like making mistakes (which when you're learning something new, the fact is it happens).

When you make mistakes or don't look like you know what you're doing, then you get embarrassed. And we don't like embarrassed either. We don't like people looking at us and thinking, "What a dope / dunce." We don't like the blood rushing to our face.

So let's just stick with the way we've always done it. Deal?

Oh, we may still be stuck in a rut. We may still not be doing much business. We may still be losing our shirt. But that's okay. At least we'll be competent with what we've got going. At least we won't make any mistakes or be embarrassed.

At least we won't look stupid.

You might also be interested in:

• 10 Ways to Put Off Procrastination
• 7 Things Not To Forget About Change

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Source: 2011 REALTORS® Technology Survey