A few weeks ago, my husband and I took the day off and went skiing. It was a beautiful day, sunny and a little foggy. Had a lot of fun runs.

We took a wrong turn once which led us to a black diamond. It took a while to get through all the bumps and turns. But slow and steady won the race.

When we reached the chair lift, I rushed it. I scooted in too quickly which didn’t give us enough time to properly line up. My skis were angled to the right which caused my husband to misalign as well.

The chair lift attendant tried to overcorrect to get me in alignment, but it didn’t work. The chair hit my leg and I went down which caused my husband to go down too.

The attendant quickly stopped the chair. The skier ahead of us (on the chair) hollered back, “are you okay?” Which, I’m sure they could hear on the other side of the mountain. But I kindly replied back, “yes.”

We were able to get off the ground (in ski boots with skis attached is quite a task) and get lined back up. The chair started up slowly and we were back on track.

I looked at him and started laughing, mostly out of embarrassment but grateful we both were okay. I told him that I’m sure my leg is going to bruise, and it did, along with my ego.

A lot of times, as home-based solopreneurs, we are rushing, we don’t get our skis lined up and we get knocked down. It’s happened to me so many times.

What do we do to fix it? Try asking yourself these three questions:

1. What worked?
2. What didn’t work?
3. What will I do differently next time?

On my chair lift ride up the mountain, I asked myself those three questions. First, I gave myself grace. That’s really the first time that I’ve had a chair lift accident and, my husband reminded me that it was his first chairlift mishap as well.

What worked was how I’ve always managed to get on the chair safely for years. What didn’t work was that I was rushing to get on the chair before it was ready for us. And, next time, I’ll wait until I have plenty of time to get lined up safely for myself and my partner.

So, when things are a little bumpy and you’re getting knocked down in your business or your life, first give yourself grace and then ask yourself without judgement, what worked, what didn’t work and what will I do differently next time.