No matter what you do in life, you will make mistakes in your quest for success. Whether your path is entrepreneurship, athletics, or another pursuit, it is important that you embrace these mistakes as the perfect learning opportunity to achieve success.
Often looked down upon in modern society, mistakes are simply unavoidable on any path in life. It is time we changed how we view making mistakes and their role in promoting success.
Mistakes Are Rarely the End of the World
Even if each mistake that you make seems like the end of the world, there are people with far worse stories. In some cases, mistakes can lead to death, loss of property, or relationships, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot recover in order to be successful with whichever endeavor you would like. After all of these mistakes are made, you can either complain, feel emotionally drained, or take a learning approach to your situation.
At the moment, the pain might be very real. Many of these scars will even last you a lifetime, but this will prevent you from ever making the same mistake again. For anyone trying to be successful, avoiding the same mistake more than once is key.
Victory From Mistakes
Whether you believe it or not, many of the top leaders in world history made tremendous mistakes earlier in their lives. Some of them even led to the death of friends and comrades, but each man learned from the mistakes in order to be successful.
George Washington – well known as the founder of the USA, Washington started his military career in the French and Indian War as a Corporal in the Colonial Militia. In one skirmish, Washington made a blunder that cost the lives of almost all of his men. Learning from his mistake, Washington was able to outmaneuver the British army, which was the strongest of the time.
Thomas Edison – once quoted as saying “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!” Edison is the perfect example of making mistakes. After thousands of his own mistakes, Edison learned all of the things he had done wrong in order to create the light bulb correctly. Had he quit, we would all be in a very different place.
Abraham Lincoln – while known for his two Presidential terms in the USA and his role in the Civil War, Lincoln’s political past is largely forgotten. In the years before the Presidential election in 1860, Lincoln had lost 8 out of 10 elections. Only two years prior, Lincoln had lost a U.S. Senate race. Learning from his mistakes, he was able to win the election and change the course of American history.
Learning From Your Mistakes
Even though the histories of these great men might resonate with you, sometimes it is better to have a tangible practice to help you learn from your mistakes. Here are a few of the things that you can do in order to learn from your mistakes more efficiently.
Meditation / Relaxation – initially, you cannot learn from your mistakes without relaxing. If you are stressed, your mind will think differently, you will take the wrong lessons, and ultimately you will learn nothing. You must compose yourself through either meditation or just through some time of relaxation where you can become more composed.
Write mistakes down – you need to visualize your mistakes and even diagram them to see at what level things started to fall apart. When you write it down, it will have a much deeper impact on you.
Be realistic / remove emotions – you have to be realistic with yourself when it comes to your mistakes. Do not be too harsh, do not be too easy on yourself. Just look at the event subjectively and see what you can learn.
Ask friends and family – you need more than your own perspective. Get the help from friends and family that you trust to see where you went wrong and how to correct things
Once you transition your brain to embrace mistakes in order to learn from them, you will find that you are far more free from outcome and able to utilize lessons better.
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