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.