Mistakes: Why They are Good for Everyone

Mistakes are a part of life. You cannot go through your entire life without making one – and those who claim they’ve never made a mistake are either crazy, seriously lacking self-esteem or they’re not really living. The problem with mistakes is that we dwell on them. We do something wrong, hurt someone, do the wrong thing or mess something up and we allow that to haunt is. Mistakes aren’t good, but they’re not as bad as you think. Mistakes are, in my opinion, something you admit to when they happen and then you learn from the experience and use it as an opportunity to improve yourself. The next time you make a mistake, don’t let it haunt you; ask yourself these questions.

What Did I Learn?

The point of mistakes is that we can learn from them. No, it’s not fun to do something wrong, say something wrong or just be wrong about anything, but it is a learning opportunity. Not using your mistakes as an opportunity to learn a valuable lesson is a surefire way to make sure you stay idle in life. Say you make a mistake at work; what do you learn? Did you learn that next time you should do more research or that you should have asked for help? Did you learn to double check your work or not rely on others to help? Whatever you learned will help you do better the next time.

What Will I Do Differently Next Time?

How can you take this mistake and turn it around the next time? That’s what you need to focus on. Don’t focus on your mistake, but on what you got out of it to help prevent the same thing from happening the next time. The people who built the Titanic probably asked themselves this question a time or two…

Am I Smarter?

Essentially, what you need to get out of your mistakes is a little bit smarter. The next time you won’t do this, and you will do this and you will continue to learn from your mistakes. Mistakes equal experience and experience equals knowledge.