Self-Help Advice That Works

What You Want: To learn from your mistakes.

What to Try: Three quickie questions. Most of Tim Hurson and Tim Dunne's book Never Be Closing: How to Sell Better Without Screwing Your Clients, Your Colleagues, or Yourself is about how to create more intimate and successful business relationships. As part of that process, the two authors studied the work of famed psychologist David Kolb. "We learn most effectively," write Hurson and Dunne citing Kolb's research, "when we reflect on our experience, use these reflections to develop new ways of thinking and behaving, and then test these approaches in new situations." Their simplified advice could work for many of us in areas beyond work: After completing a project or undergoing an experience, ask yourself these three questions: "What?" "So what?" "Now what?" In other words, what did you do (or what happened)? What did it mean to you? And what would you do differently if you were to do it again? Repeat as needed.