Incredible You! - Learning To Embrace Your Mistakes

How do you feel when you make a mistake? Or when you have failed at a task? Do you feel like your failures define you; are they painful to recollect?

You may have heard the saying before; 'learn from your mistakes', but exactly how are you meant to do this if you shy away from them?

A mistake is only a mistake, if you ignore it. A failure is only a failure if you fail to recognise the opportunity to learn.

-- Cryptogee

The Importance Of Analysis

Mistakes used to tear me up inside, I would dwell on them for ages, and then eventually bury them deep in my psyche. To me, as it is to a lot of people, the word failure was a noun, not a verb.

However it is important to remember that failure is a verb. It's something you do, not something you are. A failure denotes when a task has gone wrong, it does not point out what is wrong with you.

It is only when you fully understand that, and accept it, that you will be able to look upon past failures and mistakes as an opportunity to learn.

In that respect, failures and mistakes become something to look forward to, because each one represents potential to grow and enrich your life.

However beyond acceptance, there has to be a practical exercise, that will help you learn from your mistakes. Without the practicality, the words are just that, words. So let me show you a little trick that I have learned and put into practice.

Boy oh boy is this one hell of a powerful weapon to put in your mental arsenal.

The Learning List

As you know if you've been following along with the *Incredible You!* series, is all about advice on reaching your full potential. However I don't like to use empty words, cliches and platitudes, instead I want to give practical advice that will help you realise the power of you.

With that being said, let us now find out how we can truly learn from our mistakes.

The key is making a list of your mistakes, analysing why they became mistakes, and then writing down the ways you are going to avoid those mistakes again.

It sounds simple, however if you try this technique, I guarantee you will see results immediately. Below I have put my list of mistakes that I feel I made in 2017.

Of course I'm sure that I made many more mistakes than this, however I wanted to concentrate on the ones that I felt impacted my life the most.

Mistakes Mean You're Learning

You probably don't remember being a baby and learning to walk, and I wasn't there to witness it, however I bet you all the Steem in my account that you didn't jump out of your mother's womb and start to immediately walk!

I bet you made mistakes along the way, and I bet those mistakes didn't define you. You simply got up and carried on, till hey, look at you now, you're an expert walker!

The desire to shy away from our mistakes comes purely from a fixed mindset, I call my fixed mindset Nigel. This is so that anytime I feel like running away from my mistakes, or ashamed by my failures. I can tell Nigel to go and shove it, because I know mistakes and fails don't define me, and they indicate that I am learning.

However we can only learn by analysis; remember, doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different result, is the definition of madness. The only thing to combat this, is an honest appraisal of our mistakes.

Grow Grow And Grow Some More

I have put myself in a growth mindset by focusing on the effort I give, not on the results of said efforts.

Would you start your dream job and every day just focus on the money you're getting? Or would you concentrate on the work you were doing, trying to be the best you could in the job?

If you do something well, do not feel superior, if you do something badly do not feel inferior. Simply strive to work hard and smart, and the rest will take care of itself.

Now off you go, make your own list, I made mine span a year, maybe yours will be shorter, maybe it will be longer. That's the thing about this series, it is about making you incredible, in your own unique way.

HAVE YOU TRIED THIS METHOD BEFORE? OR PERHAPS YOU BELIEVE YOUR FAILURES DEFINE YOU? PERHAPS YOU CAN TRY THIS AND SEE HOW IT GOES? WHATEVER THE CASE, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Cryptogee