MISTAKES AND COURSE CORRECTION

How many possibilities in your life have you sacrificed to fear?  Fear of it not going well, of making a bad decision, of losing your investment, of failure?  Many people will look back on their lives one day and have more regrets about the things they didn’t do, rather than regret what they did do.
The more successful people are, it seems, the more mistakes they have made.  Errors turn out to be more valuable down the road than the expected outcome.  Just ask the chemist who was trying to cook up a strong glue and thought he’d failed.  The resulting adhesive is used by millions daily on “Post it” notes!  Knowing what to do about, and with, our mistakes is one of the best tools around.
I read a quote once by Thomas Edison who said, “I can tell you 10,000 things that didn’t work.”  When you can look at mistakes as simply a success that needs more work, you give yourself permission to experience a richer, more fulfilling life.
Consider the following ways to use mistakes as stepping-stones:
Accept the reality that mistakes are part of everyone’s life, even yours. You have made, are making, and will always make mistakes. Make peace with this fact of life.
Accept responsibility for your mistakes. It’s easy to blame other people, poor procedures, miscommunication, etc. for the failure of a project or situation.  But that only sets you up to repeat the same errors again and again. Ask yourself, how can I do this better next time? 
Differentiate between the small stuff and situations that are warning signals.  Little errors (breaking your partner’s favorite coffee mug, forgetting someone’s name), are just part of life. However, if the same situation keeps happening, pay attention.  Someone once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again the same way and expecting a different result every time!
Be prepared for your mistakes with constructive self-talk. Instead of saying to yourself, “What a klutz! I can’t do anything right!” substitute,” OK, I’m doing too many things at the same time. Let me just slow down and breathe for a minute.” Be kind to yourself. This is not about your inadequacies, but about the natural progression toward mastery.
USE the information you gain from your mistakes immediately and integrate it into your daily life and activities and behaviors. Information without implementation is useless.
Know that you have choices about how you handle things when they don’t go as planned.
And above all, stop trying to be so darn perfect!! Perfection can actually sabotage your efforts.  In spite of the idea that perfection seems to be an honorable goal, it actually has nothing to do with high standards.  Many times it can stand in the way of you moving ahead.  It can stop you from feeling good about your performance. For perfectionists, failing at a task means it wasn’t performed successfully. It can feed self-criticism, and stop any forward movement.
Learn to laugh at yourself.  Make a mistake on purpose and see who notices or who really cares. Your life is about who you are. Take the time this week to appreciate and acknowledge that imperfect and unique person you truly are. You may just make a mistake that is more of a success in the long run than what you were aiming for!

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