Making mistakes
I borrowed a necklace from my daughter a couple of days ago - a lovely heart-shaped pendant she'd received for her birthday the week before. It complemented my outfit perfectly and she'd urged me to wear it.
At the end of the evening, on removing my coat, the clasp came undone and the necklace smashed on the floor. Horrors! It's bad enough to break one of your own possessions - far worse if it's someone else's.
My daughter was amazingly gracious about it when I admitted the mistake the following morning, having managed to glue the unfortunate pendant back together. Next time, I'll take more care of it and be aware that the clasp cannot be relied upon to stay closed.
We all make mistakes. It may not feel like it at the time, but thank goodness we do. It's through making mistakes that we enable our best learning.
Think of the toddler learning to walk. She doesn't get up one day, start walking and never again falls over or resorts to crawling or being picked up. She will try, fall down, try again, fall, try something different, and keep going until eventually she's mastered the skill.
Yet we often put pressure on ourselves to do things right first time and to avoid mistakes at all costs.
I once attended a seminar where I was introduced to the idea that there's no such thing as failure - only a different outcome to the one expected. How fabulous to believe failure doesn't exist. Steve McDermott, the excellent leader of the seminar, went on to dramatically describe how mistakes can be real learning opportunities - each and every mistake providing a "how fascinating" learning moment.
So, the next time you or I make a mistake, let's cut the guilt, and instead see it as a new opportunity for learning - a "how fascinating" moment - and then move on to do different and better things!
At the end of the evening, on removing my coat, the clasp came undone and the necklace smashed on the floor. Horrors! It's bad enough to break one of your own possessions - far worse if it's someone else's.
My daughter was amazingly gracious about it when I admitted the mistake the following morning, having managed to glue the unfortunate pendant back together. Next time, I'll take more care of it and be aware that the clasp cannot be relied upon to stay closed.
We all make mistakes. It may not feel like it at the time, but thank goodness we do. It's through making mistakes that we enable our best learning.
Think of the toddler learning to walk. She doesn't get up one day, start walking and never again falls over or resorts to crawling or being picked up. She will try, fall down, try again, fall, try something different, and keep going until eventually she's mastered the skill.
Yet we often put pressure on ourselves to do things right first time and to avoid mistakes at all costs.
I once attended a seminar where I was introduced to the idea that there's no such thing as failure - only a different outcome to the one expected. How fabulous to believe failure doesn't exist. Steve McDermott, the excellent leader of the seminar, went on to dramatically describe how mistakes can be real learning opportunities - each and every mistake providing a "how fascinating" learning moment.
So, the next time you or I make a mistake, let's cut the guilt, and instead see it as a new opportunity for learning - a "how fascinating" moment - and then move on to do different and better things!
posted by Elizabeth Juffs at 10:28 AM
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