Everyone makes mistakes. These mistakes include mishaps that may affect someone’s career as a whole. If you’re in this situation, don’t shut down. It’s possible to recover.

Here’s how to get back up from a career mishap:

1. Evaluate the situation. Acceptance is the first key. Realize that you have made a mistake and need to step back for awhile. Then, evaluate the situation to help determine what you need to do to keep moving forward. This will keep you motivated instead of wallowing and potentially overreacting. At the same time, productive evaluation will keep your emotions in check, allowing you to be more objective about the situation.

2. Damage control. The sooner you start damage control, the better. Try to fix the situation as soon as possible, if you can. You may need to ask for help from your colleagues or others who can help alter the problem. How bad was your mistake? Can it be fixed right away? Come up with several solutions before taking action that could worsen the problem. Stay focused so that you don’t repeat the same mistake.

3. Don’t let the mistake cripple you. Mistakes are there for us to learn from. None of us should expect 100% perfection. Focus on your work and don’t let your past mistakes affect your performance. Just be more cautious in dealing with the same problem if it arises in order to overcome the situation in the future. Keep moving forward and go for your goals.

4. Draw a conclusion. If you committed a serious error, you may want to create a plan in order to avoid dealing with the same issue again. Use the mistake as an opportunity to hone your skills even more. Don’t forget to check in with your colleagues or boss to let them know about the actions you are taking. Doing this develops trust and confidence from others in your working environment. Don’t despair—You can handle the problem professionally and bounce back from it.