If a branch from a dead tree falls on my roof, I’m tempted to just think about when it fell and blame the wind.  If I do, the next storm is likely to blow the rest of the tree down and do more damage.  If I really thought about the cause, I would realize that where I slipped was in not cutting the dead tree down and I could correct the problem without any more damage.

I have heard of students who didn’t have their project ready to turn in on a Friday makes excuses that something happened on Thursday night to prevent them from getting the project done.  Thursday is when they fell; they had slipped when they decided to wait until the last minute to do the work.

Both these are examples of people paying attention to the time of the failure and blaming something beyond their control.  Successful people makes lots of mistakes, but they look back to learn what they could do to keep from making the same mistake again.