While we tend to try to avoid making mistakes at all costs, they often happen. When we make them, they can live in our minds and remind us that we have “failed” miserably at the most inopportune times. Some people are so troubled by their mistakes that they give up on lifelong dreams. And others understand that mistakes are the building blocks to success.
Our last mistake can be our best teacher. We just have to choose to embrace the lesson it can teach us.
Why do we learn more from our mistakes and failures than from our successes?
Mistakes Make a Lasting Impression
When I was a kid and I was able to ride a bike without training wheels, I became quite the daring adventurer. I saw riding a bike as a new freedom and loved feeling the wind on my face as I rode down the hill that connected to the street where I lived.
It was a decent sized hill on a connecting street that descended down to the dead-end street our house was on. I would ride down that hill, and quickly take a right hand turn to head home and never wiped out. I was a bit reckless, but I was a kid being a kid. Pushing limits to see what was possible. Well on this day, I learned just how careless I was being on my bike. As I came down the hill, I couldn’t slow down fast enough to make the right turn. And sure enough, as I made the turn, my bike crashed into a high curb and I flipped over the handle bars and into a ditch. There was a major drop on that side of the road that I apparently never considered when I would turn quickly onto my street.
I was cut up and bruised pretty bad, but miraculously, no broken bones. I remember this so vividly and how the dirt smelled when I landed on the ground. And I remember how upset my mom was when she saw where I flipped over. She didn’t know how I wasn’t seriously injured from it. It definitely left a lasting impression. But did I ever get back on my bike? I did. The very next day. I had to walk it home after the accident and the tire was fixed that night.
The mistake I made that day, even as a kid, taught me a few lessons. One, slow the fuck down. Stop riding my bike like I was immortal. Don’t be a menace on the street so you don’t put anyone else in harms way. I was lucky a car or person wasn’t there when I skid into the curve and hit the curb. This mistake was incredible experience that taught me to exercise caution and be mindful of my surroundings. It also taught be how to better gauge turns when riding fast. Lessons learned.
Successes Are a Result of Many Failures
Ask anyone who is successful in business, and they will tell you that their success didn’t happen overnight. Most successful people tried things repeatedly until they got it right. I know personally, with my own business, I have made some pretty horrible (and costly) mistakes. And I’ve gained incredible wisdom of what not to do in business because of it.
You see for successful people, giving up isn’t in their wheelhouse. They fail, fail, and fail again – learning and gathering information as they go to do it better the next time. So can you.
Understand that you are going to make mistakes. And that is totally okay, as long as you keep learning from them. Don’t allow self-doubt or discouragement to creep into your thoughts. And if they do, remind yourself of this: When a child is learning to walk and falls down 50 times, they never think to themselves, “Maybe this isn’t for me.” Can you imagine what would happen if they did? Or if their parents did? When you make a mistake, remind yourself that you have just found a way something doesn’t work or what you did wasn’t an effective way to go about something. Take it as experience and a lesson learned.
