What have you gained from a recent failure or mistake?
I would be the first to admit when I have fallen short and made mistakes. Well actually, my wife would be the first to tell me I made a mistake! I am just playin’, she is great! It comes as no surprise that I make mistakes. I generally catch them after a decision has been made. I will take ownership when Something is not right. I have learned that I must control my frustration and not react negatively. John Maxwell discusses the concept of making mistakes very thoroughly in the book Failing Forward. This is not another post about his book, but rather a discussion of the fact that we all make mistakes. If you have not read it, please go get it. The cliff-notes version of this as shared by me is simple. Act and know you will make some mistakes.
We learn a lot about ourselves when we make mistakes. We accept that we are not perfect and there will be bumps in the road. The greatest thing that comes out of failures is the moment you realize not to make the same mistakes again. Countless experts and leaders tell us that when we error, we are in fact learning. As we experience our mistakes and the learning we gain, we must make a conscious step to internalize or collect the learning we gained. If no system is in place to catch the lesson, we have failed again. This failure is compounding and holding us back even more. Look for a process that works for you. Catch the learning in some way, maybe a simple notebook that gathers lessons for life.
Fear can be crippling. If we fear mistakes and doing something wrong, we risk doing nothing. Inaction is the results of our fears. We all experienced moments that the fear of failure outweighs the actions or decision we must make. Along with this fear, comes the idea that others are critical of your decisions. Confidence is helpful in these situations, but not always. If you are in a leadership role, your critics will always be happy to share your short comings. Expect this criticism and face it head on. If we take it personally, we will probably react with a poor attitude and stop making decisions. When a mistake is made, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and continue to act.
What have you learned today?
What part of your decision-making process scares you the most?
How do you perceive the mistakes you make?
How do you plan to capture the learning gained by making mistakes?
We all make mistakes, and some of us are good at it! Don’t beat yourself up over the errors you make and don’t allow others to criticize you either. I appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog and I hope you have found my post useful. Have a great week making mistakes.
Steven C. Bucks-Leading Conversations
