Constantly Feeling Like I've Screwed Up

So, pretty much on a daily basis, I am worried that I'm doing something wrong (at work, at school, while driving, even at home). This is particularly difficult with work and school, since I am given tasks/assignments which I have to complete, and will be evaluated in some form. With almost every assignment I have done in the course of my schoolwork, I have been concerned that I don't have the information I need to complete the assignment, or that I will misunderstand the instructions.
So, Sunday, I submitted an assignment for one class. I had a couple of ideas for topics, and ultimately decided to go with one I feel somewhat passionate about and that I thought would be sufficient. I now (after submitting it to a discussion thread, but I haven't looked at everyone else's posts) am worried that, while I could do the assignment okay with this topic, that the actually topic itself doesn't fit the bill of what we were supposed to do. Long story short: we are supposed to build a database (in stages--we have just started) for library management. Our instructions were too open-ended for my taste: "choose anything you want, within the realm of library management, that you could use now or in the future." After much debate on my part, I chose to go with career resources, over my other ideas of video games or local arts (I thought finding career resources would be easier). My thinking in this was along the lines of public service. Patrons would use information for career resources, but yesterday, I realized this may not work for the "library management" component of the assignment.
This is stressing me out a lot...especially since other people can see what I posted (one reason I am avoiding looking at the thread--we are supposed to analyze each other's submissions for our next assignment). I just hope I didn't screw up too badly...

You'll just have to bite the bullet and read the thread, LM.

Even if you missed the mark, it won't be that bad. Everyone makes mistakes, and you may not have even made one.

They'll get over it if you did, just try to laugh it off. You didn't kill anybody.

I just realized a way I could redeem myself! I'm feeling a lot better now. Even though I haven't seen any feedback yet, and the assignment hasn't been graded, but I think I could make it work. Since I went in the direction of career development, I could gear it toward library employees finding resources to make it more inline with "library management."

So...I got all the points and the instructor even put a smiley face at the end of her comments...

Sweet relief, congratulations.

lilmutegirl said:

So...I got all the points and the instructor even put a smiley face at the end of her comments...

Click to expand...

Atta girl.

So, I am having a really bad day today. At work, I was really overwhelmed (there was a lot going on, which would have been fine, except that there were almost constantly two or three going on at the same time, pulling me in separate directions). I made a slight mistake (contacted the wrong person about something that needed to be fixed); this is something that I should have known about already, and I even questioned myself which one I was supposed to tell. My boss showed me the right one (after I contacted the wrong one), and I called them, the thing got fixed; all is well. I keep dwelling on this (granted, it only happened a few hours ago). Maybe if I hadn't been in such a bad mood and stressed, it wouldn't be affecting me so much.

Now, I'm worried about my job...though I probably don't need to be. My appraisal is coming up this month, and there are a couple of things I was supposed to do this past year which (per an official work document with goals for the year). Technically, I got it all done in time, but I have to have a couple of things reviewed, and that has not been done yet, so I don't know if it counts. I should have said something to my boss earlier, but I could probably take a screen shot showing that I completed what I was supposed to by the time I needed to do it, so that may suffice. I also plan on applying for full-time positions (and possibly promotions) in the next month. My boss has spoken highly of me in the past (including my ability to get things done by deadlines without having to be reminded) and I'd hate for this incident to alter her perception of me negatively. It's probably not that big of a deal, especially since it will probably be reviewed and completely done by the time I meet with her to discuss my appraisal, but, of course, my anxiety is taking over...

Try not to worry about it, your boss knows you're a good, reliable worker.