Focus Point
The Truth About Mistakes and Failing.
This week I would like to share a few thoughts on the
mistakes that we make, and failures as they relate to everyday life. Michael
Jordan says, "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. What I
cannot accept is not trying". I believe this is powerful insight that we
can consider. Since our attitude, perception, and response to mistakes drive
our effectiveness, it is important to learn how we can move forward in spite
and because of them. Like the old saying: "Pain is inevitable, misery is
optional".
Mistakes and setbacks can be great tools for learning. In
other words, if you think of mistakes as personal and perceive them wrongly
this way, then you will never try anything that is outside of your comfort
zone, which takes away all possibilities of success. So more helpful is to see
them as a normal process of life and as the seedbed for everything good that we
have today. In fact, almost every good thing we have today was birthed out of
some kind of tragedy, mistake, or failure along the way. Take a look at
medicine, our means of travel, technology, etc. Each wonderful invention came
along to aid in something that was once a problem or a past failure.
Minimizing mistakes and less effective choices is always the
best route to go. Learning from other people's mistakes is the next best thing,
and learning from our own mistakes when we do make them and fixing it so as to
not repeat it again is the next best thing.
Unless it is a choice that would degrade our character,
integrity, or moral standing, I believe we would do very well to follow this
advise from Theodore Roosevelt: "In most situations the best thing you can
do is the right thing, the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing, the
worst thing you can do is nothing".
Accept mistakes not as failure, but as feedback.
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