High Achievers Are the Ones Who Make
the Most Mistakes
The impact mistakes have had
on most people’s lives is tremendous.
At school, you were taught to answer questions with model
answers. At home, you were taught to be disciplined, have good manners and
follow social etiquette. And at work, you’ve become accustomed to a constant
expectation that you operate in a mistake-free manner!
The problem with all the above scenarios is that they punish
mistakes. A teacher deducts marks for a wrong answer – a supervisor scolds
people for failing to take the right action.
It’s no surprise, then, that from a very young age, people have
been made to feel bad about making mistakes. Some have even felt like a
complete failure. This constant negative feedback leads to most people
desperately trying to live their lives without making any mistakes. It can
actually become a compulsion. It may even lead to them trying to hide or lie
about their mistakes.
But there is more to making mistakes than most have been led to
believe.
The
Unexpected Positive Side of Being Wrong
The
truth is, by forever seeking to avoid mistakes – we actually end up making more
mistakes!
It’s time to start looking at mistakes from a different
perspective. They aren’t the monster they’ve been made out to be. They’ve the
remarkable ability to help bring about powerful and rapid personal growth.
If you try to avoid mistakes, then
you’ll also be missing opportunities to experience something different from
what you planned or expected. Imagine that you miss a connecting
flight while traveling to an exotic location. By missing the flight, you are
forced to stay for 24 hours in a destination that you’d never been to before.
To your surprise, though, you find that the nearest city to the airport is
picturesque, cosmopolitan and friendly. In fact, during your time there –
you begin to fall in love with everything the city has to offer. When you
finally have to leave the city to go back to the airport, you feel genuinely
sad. The city captivates your interest and warms your heart.
Clearly, if you hadn’t missed your flight, you would’ve never
visited the city – and never discovered your immediate liking for it.
Life can be like that. Mistakes can lead to adventures and
opportunities. And beyond that, mistakes
can help you to understand how to make better decisions in future situations.
Making
Mistakes Does Not Fend off Success, Avoiding Them Does
Unsuccessful
people put the bulk of their focus and energy on avoiding mistakes,
whereas successful people put the
bulk of their focus and energy on making continual attempts at reaching their
goals.
Jim Carrey, on his debut comic stand-up at a club called Yuk
Yuk’s in Toronto, he was booed off stage. However, he didn’t let this break
him. Instead, he used the experience as a wake up call to improve his
performance. This wasn’t the only set back he endured. When auditioning for the
Saturday Night Live 1980-81 season, he failed to land the part.1 Again, he didn’t
let this destroy his confidence or ambition, but instead he kept on pursing his
dreams until he finally broke through to the mainstream in 1994 with the
blockbuster movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.”
▲ Jim Carrey wasn’t so successful as a comic stand up at
the very beginning.
And then there is Michael Jordan. His profile on NBA’s website
describes him as “the greatest basketball player of all time.”2 And this is how
most people think of him. However, Jordan himself said that:
“I have
missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26
occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I
have failed over and over and over again in my life.”
But he clarified this statement by adding some vital
information: “And that is why I succeed.”
Each attempt they made was open to mistakes. With more attempts made, the more feedback
they received, and the more chances they gained to do better.
So, if you really want to avoid mistakes – attempt nothing and
take no risks. Your record may remain clean, you’ll make few mistakes, but
you’ll also have few achievements to write home about. In other words, avoiding mistakes is the easiest way to
become and stay unsuccessful.
From
Making Mistakes to Mastering Mistakes
Failed attempts are only futile if you don’t learn
from them.
Let’s say that you expect that mistakes will happen after you’ve
made a choice. This is natural. You’re aware that choices come with risks, and
risks can lead to mistakes. However, if you allow the same mistakes to occur
time and time again, then you’re not learning or evolving – but instead are
stuck in a rut. Albert Einstein said it well:
“The
definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and
expecting different results.”
A much better approach, is to analyze your mistakes, and to see
if you can work out how to avoid them in the future. Put another way, make every attempt count and learn from it.
By doing this, you’ll quickly overcome foolish mistakes, and begin to make real
progress in your life.
As a hard-hitting example for you to think about, if you know
that drunk driving can kill, and you still do it because you think it’s about
“making more attempts and mistakes,” that’s a foolish act – not an attempt that
will help you grow.
On the other hand, if you plan a business project with some
risky ideas, but expect there will be mistakes, then even if these efforts turn
out to be unsuccessful, you’ll learn from them.
A mistake is just a mis-take, start
over by learning from your last mis-take.
Making mistakes doesn’t equal failure. Not making any, however,
will mean that you miss out on tons of attempts and learning opportunities.
This guarantees failure.
Be brave, be bold, and be prepared to make mistakes.
Leon Ho
http://www.lifehack.org/614300/high-achievers-are-the-ones-who-make-the-most-mistakes?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_2&mid=20170724&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&utm_source=newsletter_tier_2&utm_medium=email&action=click
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