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Make Mistakes! It's Okay. Really!
When you fall, do you get right back up? Do you learn from your
mistake and move on? Or do you kick yourself so hard in the butt
that you just mope around for days in your PJs and wonder why
you're so miserable? Come on! Get a grip!
Okay, okay, that was uncalled for, but seriously, the more
mistakes you make, the more you learn. The more you learn the
more you grow and the more likely you'll be a future bright star
in the sky.
When you were a young growing child, how were you supposed to
know the oven was hot? Or that you can’t put metal in the
microwave? Or that when you say something impolite you'll hurt
someone's feelings? You would have either experienced these
things first hand, or you were taught that these were all things
to avoid.
Mistake Anxiety
A constant fact of life is that we all make mistakes. What varies
is how we all handle a self-inflicted setback. Some get angry;
others get upset, while others encounter the wretched beast known
as denial (What mistake? It wasn’t me!).
Just like we mentioned in a previous article: “The Key's in the
Hole. Now turn it!”, it’s important to take a chance! If you make
a mistake, at least you turned the key and made a valiant
attempt. If you were too terrified of turning the key, you never
would have known whether you would have been successful or not!
And you couldn't have possibly made a mistake to learn from!
I mean, how can you learn without messing up every once in a
while? You need to make a mistake to learn. If you did everything
perfectly, then you’ll never know the right strategy from the
wrong.
Are You a Leader?
Then there’s a whole other set of people who admit to their
mistakes, acknowledge that they stumbled, but they go right into
contingency mode. I mean, so you screwed up, so what? It’s not
the end of the world is it? The Earth will still be in orbit and
mosquitoes will still be biting the hell out of your legs. It’s
not a question of: “I screwed up, give me pity”, it’s a question
of: “Okay, I slipped-up, but this is what I’m going to do about
it...”
The best leaders out there are the ones who made the most
mistakes but learned from them. The ones that never discovered or
acknowledged their faux pas never made it into the business world
and never made a difference in their own life, or the world.
Young Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Josh Towers went 0-12
last season between Baltimore and its Triple-A club. Last year as
the Jays' fifth starter he went 8-1. Quite the turn around from
just a year ago! Josh Towers, the winning Jays' pitcher in the
last game of the season, said:
"You can't succeed without failing. I failed. I learned a lot
from that."
Now go out there and pitch a perfect game in your life. You might
fail once. Or twice. Or ten times. But just remember, each
failure brings you closer to a glowing success.
About the Author
© Copyright 2004, Ronnie Nijmeh, ACQYR.com. The ACQYR team provides the masses with witty yet
strategic ideas leading to self- improvement and growth. For more information and exciting, fresh motivational articles, visit:
http://www.acqyr.com Live. Learn. ACQYR.