6/16/2011 Afterthoughts and Regrets

Afterthoughts And Regrets….

How often have you said or done something and then later, reflecting on your action, thought to yourself, "How could I have done that?"

Here are some afterthoughts which, unfortunately, too many of us have experienced:

•"That's how we've always done it before." (…before the accident occurred anyway.)

•"I never thought that a little bolt dropped from that distance would cause so much bleeding." ( I should have worn a hard hat, I guess.)

•"If I had taken that first-aid/CPR course, I probably could have helped him." (…and chances are, he would still be here.)

•"I should have taken care of that board with the projecting rusty nails earlier." (Now, I have to take off work to get a tetanus shot.)

•"Wow, I never realized that a fire could get out of control so fast." ( If I'd called the fire department before trying to put it out myself, I might still have a place to work tomorrow.)

•" I know they were always preaching that we should lift with the leg muscles instead of the back muscles." (What the heck is a herniated disk?)

•"For few more dollars, I could have bought safety shoes." (That deep cut in the toe section ruined my new work boots, and this broken toe still hurts.)

•"My safety glasses were in the tool box, but I was just going to grind off this one little piece…." ( I wonder if they'll still let me drive with only one eye?)

•"We were only going to use the scaffold for one day. I never thought a hammer would fall off the plank and strike someone." (I had a hunch I should have taken the time to install the toe boards.)

•"They always insisted that the tool rest should be no more than one-eighth inch from the grinding wheel. What difference does another quarter inch make?" (I was lucky not to go blind when the chisel got wedged and the wheel exploded into a thousand pieces.)

Any of this sound familiar?? They say hindsight is the only perfect science-but foresight could have avoided these incidents, misfortunes and regrets.

Learn from others' mistakes and you'll have no regrets!