A friend and I were talking recently about past mistakes we've all made, if we're being honest. He shared one of his and I told him I wouldn't judge him for that, because we all make mistakes. He laughed and said yeah right, what? you spill coffee in the morning?
Oh good grief.
I thanked him for thinking so highly of me.
One thing I am grateful for is that this didn't go anywhere near the unfortunate "Goody Two Shoes" comment from a while back that I blogged about, because I would put on boxing gloves for that one. (Post: You're just as good for me, as I hope I am for you)
I make mistakes people. I'm not going to go back to Kindergarten and start listing them out by any means. If I did go back that far, there was that one time I didn't invite a classmate to a birthday party I had, because no one in our class really liked her. I conformed. ACK! This thought haunts me even today when I think about it. Wherever she is, I hope she's doing something uber cool like being a rocket scientist/blogger/author/chairperson of a really cool committee, so well that every single person that snubbed her would be envious.
The one mistake I do not make, is judge. Anyone. And I mean people I actually know, I don't mean celebrities who make unfortunate decisions in their marriages or steal clothing from a department store when they have enough money to buy the store itself. I'm just sayin.
To quote the artist that I feel lucky to share a birthdate with:
Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.-Vincent Van Gogh
What should the mistake do? Teach.
A man's errors are his portals of discovery- James Joyce
Everyone makes mistakes. If we can learn from them, we're the richer for it, especially when we have the fortitude to not have a repeat performance.
In training a new team member at work I noticed her doing what a lot of us do, asking "but what if I mess up?" before she would try what I told her to do. I told her that I bet if she DID mess up, she wouldn't do it again. Of course I then reassured her that she wouldn't because I would be there to help and lead her down the right path. I also shared a few things I had done that caused errors in our work, to show her that even I, with all of the experience I have now, made mistakes in my learning phase. Let me also say that I still make mistakes, not just during the learning portion.
My final quote, because you know I can go all day sharing them:
Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.-Og Mandino
So for breakfast if I don't get your eggs quite right, let me know. I can learn how you like them, and try again.
See you soon,
Tiffany
2 comments:
A story I once heard: A young guy asks a rich man, "How'd you get to be so successful?"
Rich Man: Good decisions.
Young Man: How did you learn to make good decisions?
RM: Experience.
YM: How do you get experience?
RM: Bad decisions.
This is a hard one to learn, ironically enough. :) It's hard to learn for ourselves that mistakes are building blocks. And then to try and remember it for our kids! It's almost like we have to learn all over again with them.
It IS a hard one to learn. First the feeling of failure sets in, but, if we're lucky, that building block you mention begins it's lesson. =)
Post a Comment