I’ve spoken about my dabbling into as many things as I can to make money; one of them happens to be “housecleaning” professionally. Well not professionally in such a way that I have a business doing it; but housecleaning other people’s houses for a fee.

I was doing this for quite some time on a regular basis through a company and believe it or not I was enjoying it immensely! Now; I hear you all saying – ‘enjoying housecleaning?’ ….but it’s true…some people do enjoy it. I particularly enjoyed it because it relaxed me; and it was a heck of an exercise routine to say the least! It certainly was a way to; listen to music, reflect, escape and to feel good about the results as the reward for the day! Bet you never thought of housecleaning like that before!

Now; when it came to getting an assignment to clean a house that was so filthy that I had to bring my hazmat with the gas mask attachment;

(the best I could find was a space suit!)

it wasn’t all that enjoyable anymore like “ peace, love and Bobby Sherman”! (for those of you who don’t get that last statement; just replace that comment with lying in a bed of daffodils or daisies; loving life)

I mean, I had to throw my clothes away when I finished cleaning; that’s how bad it was! It not only was hazardous to the homeowner’s health but to my health and so that was the end of that!

Needless to say, “Lesson well Learned” here…. “Stay out of dirty houses”!

The last experience I had that made me just throw in the ‘towel’ to ‘housecleaning’ jobs forever was when I was asked to clean some spots on the carpet. I thought this was a no brainer until I went to use the formula I used so many times before; and after applying it to all the spots; I left it to do it’s job while I cleaned the rest of the house…. But, low and behold….I was in shock to see the bleach spots all over the carpet. I frantically used desperate measures to try to eradicate the discoloration like a mad woman. In my futile attempt to make this right somehow; it only made things worse. In some areas the carpet was beginning to fall out…like a bad case of hair loss. What did I do next, you ask? Wrote a note; left the check right there on the counter that the homeowner left for my fee – offered to help in any way I could and got the “hell” outta there!

Needless to say “Lesson well Learned” here…. “Don’t ever do any carpet cleaning if you don’t know what you’re using!”

I think the deeper lesson learned was that I was just in the wrong business! It just wasn’t working out.

I can assure you when I have something happen to me like that; I never make the same mistake (error) more than once, or at least I try not to.

So what can we take from these crazy experiences?

The most important life lessons we will ever learn will be from the bad decisions we make. Time and experience can be excellent teachers when you actually learn a lesson from your poor decisions. Experience comes from our way of living, understanding and the adjustments we make. It also comes from suffering, agony and the ordeals we are afflicted by.

“Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgment.”

We need to learn from our “mistakes” (I don’t like that word – replace it with “experiences”) so that we do not run the risk of repeating them. We must develop the wisdom and sense to make good decisions and choices. Good judgment will only develop if you truly learn from your experiences – good or bad. Unfortunately, for many people, it takes a few repeats of the same to learn any lessons.

Good or bad, experiences are what help us learn lessons and form a better sense of judgment. Bad judgment seems to stick with us longer as a lesson learned because we really do not want to keep repeating it. Wisdom is the knowledge you can gain from making mistakes.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

I wholeheartedly believe that good judgment comes from experimentation with life. That includes poor decisions and bad judgment to ensure that good judgment might be recognized by a person and will remain a permanent fixture in their lives. If you have a difficult time making decisions or always blame your bad outcomes on others, then you have not learned anything. If you have not learned from anything, you will continue to have bad experiences that will cause you to make more poor judgments. Until you realize that, you will continue to suffer.

Growth starts as soon as you recognize your mistake (error) and how to prevent it from happening again. Everyone makes mistakes in life, this is normal, but how you learn from them is how you develop your judgment. The only way to prevent making a mistake a second time is to learn. If you don’t, you will be making that same error again and again until you are forced to learn.

“Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.”

Stay tuned for Day 6 Blog – It could blow your socks off!

Valerie