What Does "Self Help" Mean?

Take our Self-Esteem Test

Find a therapist near me

On Sunday, I made a mistake I've made before. In fact, it was the fourth time. I'm going to share the story of what happened, because it illustrates why we struggle to fix what seem like easy problems.

Hustle culture tells us that better routines are the solution to almost any human stumble, but you'll see here why that's not the case.

The following five steps are aimed at helping you diagnose and address where standard advice falls apart, through a very non-newsworthy story.

1. Errors Tend to Occur When We're Already Distracted, Busy, Out-of-Routine, Tired, etc.

What did I mess up? I was hanging laundry and noticed my pool water level was low. I was in "get things done" mode, so I turned the hose on to fill it up, intending to set a 20-minute timer on my Google Home to turn the hose off.

Either I got distracted and never set the timer, or I called out to set it when I walked inside but it didn't work, and I was preoccupied enough that I didn't listen for the confirmation.

Several hours later I realized I'd left the hose on and wasted about 2000 gallons of water. I was really frustrated with myself and also went into a rumination spiral about what could have happened if a worse mistake had occurred due to not learning from a prior error or being inattentive generally.

Traditional advice tends to recommend adopting more disciplined routines so these kinds of preventable........

© Psychology Today