The Best Mistakes Of Your Life
Posted on May 08, 2012 by Early Jackson, One of Thousands of Performance Coaches on Noomii.
Here are some tips to mine the value out of every mistake
How many mistakes have you made this year? Most of us don’t want to think about it. But it is very difficult to progress forward with your business, family or personal growth without at least entertaining the ideal that as a human, you make mistakes daily. In fact, our perception of mistakes and problems are simply a byproduct of the environment we were raised in. Imagine if no one every told you it was wrong to make a mistake in your journey forward. I believe if we were instructed to venture out and to push the boundaries of life we would not be so timid in taking steps. Mistakes are the toll we all pay on the bridge from good to great.
Our mindset toward mistakes are sometimes more important than the mistake itself. The thinking we’ve inherited goes like this; color in the lines, stay away from risks and avoid any form of conflict. This is the way a vast majority of us were raised. I’ve learned that in an effort to keep us safe and protected, our parents actually built a restrictive wall around us. We are simply afraid to take a risk. This follows us throughout our early life and eventually becomes the belief system we live by.
Let’s take a different view of mistakes. Thomas Edison once said, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” To keep this in context, we are talking about America’s father of innovation. Mr. Edison held hundreds of patents, paved the way for the development of controlled electrical currents and we have enjoyed his advancements for well over 125 years. What most do not appreciate is how many times Edison walked out of his laboratory utterly discouraged. Failure after failure mounted against him trying to break his hope. But this is the gentleman who also said “I have not failed 10,000 times, I have found 10,000 ways that do not work.”
There are some legitimate benefits to making mistakes, here are some:
• People who make mistakes are more likely to discover what’s beyond the horizon
• People who make mistakes can be open and authentic when receiving compliments
• People who make mistakes tend to be patient and supportive of other’s efforts
We live in a country built on the premise of a ‘dream’. Those courageous enough to pursue something invisible captivate the masses. We follow celebrities by the millions on Twitter and other social media, not because they are better than us, but because we long to know what it feels like to live your purpose. Isn’t that what we all want? We were created to sail distant shore and explore lands far away. But somewhere between birth and adolescence we were talked out of the ‘wild at heart’ nature that created the world around us.
A “process” is defined as “A series of operations that produce a finished product.” With this understanding we have to embrace the mistakes we make knowing they are leaving valuable clues to our success. There is solace in knowing the road we travel is well worn by those before us. Some of the greatest figures of modern American history also balanced the reputation of being the biggest failure of their generation. That is, until they failed their way into a breakthrough. We have the same opportunities before us. Will we allow the momentary limits of a mistake to determine the outcome of our legacy? Or will we push pass embarrassment and allow that to form a resilience that says like Thomas Edison, the only man that is a failure is the one who will not try again? The choice is ours.
See you at the TOP!
Early Jackson
