Our Attitude towards Mistakes

Every time you fell while attempting to walk as a child was seen by you, your parents and onlookers as an opportunity to start all over, not even minding the bruises you got; that’s the kind of attitude we should have when we make a mistake – #ProsperAnangQuotes

Different people react differently to mistakes. That’s the simple but cogent reason why you should never compare yourself with another person. The discrepancy in the way people react to mistakes is based on two factors: first, their understanding, and second, the interpretation they’ll attach to them; some react negatively, while others react positively.

By positive and negative reactions I mean that some people see every mistake as a lifetime opportunity to move forward [that’s the positive attitude], whereas, others see every mistake as something weird that shouldn’t have happened [that’s the negative attitude]. Surprisingly, there’s a group of people who hold onto a neutral opinion.

I’ve also come across people who can easily admit their mistakes, while I’ve also seen several people who would rather spend all their time to blame others for their lameness. Worse than this is the third category of people, who have spent their entire lives learning how to avoid making mistakes. They prefer not to learn from their own mistakes, given the proverbial idea that it’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes. Though I don’t dispute the fact that you can learn from other people’s mistakes, the opinion I hold is that you stand a chance of learning faster and better from the mistakes you make yourself.

The attitude you put up with respect to any mistake you make will definitely determine whether or not you’ll have control over its outcome. Mistakes should inspire you to study more in order to know what to do next time. A mistake is an opportunity to come back better. John D. Rockefeller puts it this way: “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity”. Of course, the outcome of some mistakes is disastrous.

I read one of the books of Robert Kiyosaki [Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad Best selling series] where he made the following remark: “Many people say that Pearl Harbour was an American mistake. In my opinion, it was a Japanese mistake. From the movie Tora, Tora, Tora, a somber Japanese admiral says to his cheering subordinates, ‘I am afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant’ Pearl Harbour became a rallying cry. It turned one of America’s greatest losses into the reason to win. This great defeat gave America strength and America soon emerged as a world power”.

I was fascinated when I read this. Truly, mistakes inspire winners not losers. Are you a winner? Then, allow your mistakes to inspire you to go for more victories. The process is simple; it begins with seeing every mistake you make as a spring board meant to propel you to a height that’ll make you a better person; a height you’ve never been to.

Stop being afraid to make mistakes because if you do that you’ll be living a life dominated by mistake consciousness. Read more on that in my post on MISTAKE CONSCIOUSNESS: A MIND SET YOU SHOULDN’T CARRY INTO 2019. Click HERE to read it.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. However, make sure you learn something anytime you make one. Stop trying to count your mistakes, focus rather on what you’ve learned from your mistakes. Allow your mistakes to teach you. That’s what happened to king Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon.

Though people may call them mistakes, I’ve always preferred to see them as teachers in disguise. They’ve great lessons to teach you, which can’t be learned in any university in the world except in what I’ve chosen to call “The University of Mistakes”.

It’s a university where people are trained by life how to respond to mistakes and tap resourceful potentials from their mistakes. No enrollment fee is required; no Pre-school certificates are needed. All you need to gain admission is the readiness to admit your mistakes and the willingness to open mindedly learn whatever lessons they present to you. That’s how you can find your way to living beyond your wildest dreams.

What are your wildest dreams anyway? You’ve probably never been there. Getting there will be as new as making a new discovery. What then do you expect? You’ll surely make some mistakes, which aren’t meant to stop you; rather, they’re meant to teach you some priceless lessons before you get to your desired destination where you begin to live beyond your wildest dreams.

What you actually need is to focus on the things you can learn from your mistakes than the mistakes themselves. The lessons are more important. That’s what Rockefeller meant when he said, “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity”. Yes! Start seeing every mistake you make as an opportunity for greatness.

In our schools children are taught that mistakes are bad and so should be avoided. In a school setting those who make mistakes are punished for that, and aren’t told what they should have done. For instance, a child would be punished for coming to school late but nobody ever cares to teach that child what he has to start doing in order to subsequently avoid coming to school late. As I said earlier, the truth remains that humans have been designed to learn through their mistakes.

Here’s Something worth Remembering

Can you still remember how you learned to walk? I’m sure you do. If you’ve forgotten for any reason, I’d gladly remind you of your experience because I also went through that stage of life. You did learn how to walk by falling several times, yet you didn’t give up. To you, every time you fell while attempting to walk was seen as an opportunity to start all over, not even minding the bruises you sustained. Your parents never flogged you for attempting to walk and falling. No right thinking parents would do that.

I guess you’d want to know why your parents put up that kind of reaction. They did so because they believed that giving you the opportunity to fall several times in your attempt to walk was the only way they could help you to discover by yourself the techniques required to master the art of walking. So to choose to flog you any time you fell would have been a way to kill that burning desire in you to walk, which of course made you not to even realise how often you had fallen, considering that you were so much interested in learning how to walk.

Every time you fell, your parents didn’t scold you, instead, they encouraged you to get up and try again. This phenomenon continued until one day it dawned on you and every on looker that you could walk.

I think we should exhibit the same attitude like a little child who wants to walk. Let us be more focused on learning the lessons than counting our mistakes.

In summation, I’d like to leave you with the following highlights as far as our attitude towards mistakes is concerned:

1. Begin by forgiving yourself any time you make a mistake.
2. Invest some time to develop your ideas, not taking into consideration your present situation. Doing this is important because any time you make a mistake, it simply points to the fact that your ideas aren’t strong enough to carry you. Instead of lamenting over your past mistakes, simply invest some time to work and improve on your existing ideas. The one and only way I know that can be done is by reading widely and consistently.
3. Reinvent the areas of your life which need more attention. This means getting into the art of continual renovation.
4. Make out time to conscientiously learn from your mistakes, because no mistake is too small to teach you some priceless truths.
5. Avoid to always talk about your mistakes, except if need be; in which case you’re to talk about it as a way to guide your audience from making the same mistakes.
6. Don’t ever spend your precious time to blame yourself or other people for your mistakes. You see doing that will kill your self esteem/image and your ability to relate with people.
7. Every mistake is a pointer; it either points you to something that needs to be corrected in your ideas [thought life] or your character.

Here’s My Conclusion

I’d like to leave you with the following thoughts: every mistake you make is an opportunity to learn something that you probably didn’t know or understand. Make sure you learn that lesson. The guarantee I’ve for you is that you’ll keep becoming a better person. Only mediocre avoid admitting their mistakes.

Thomas Edison didn’t kill himself for missing out 10, 000 times in his quest for a filament that could withstand the pressure of current. Even when his sponsors showed dissatisfaction and threatened to decline, he didn’t give up. What amazed me is that when he was asked about his kind of persistence, his startling reply showed that he understood that every mistake he made presented him with an opportunity to discover a way that didn’t work on one hand, and a possibility to discover a way that would eventually work. Simply put, Thomas Edison knew how to learn from his mistakes.

My suggestion to you is that you should change your attitude towards mistakes. Start seeing every mistake you make as an opportunity to discover new ways of doing something. With this kind of mind set, I can guarantee you that from now on, any mistake you make, irrespective of its magnitude, will only make your life better, as you broaden your path to living beyond your wildest dreams.

Always remember that “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” – Helen Keller, The Open Door [1957].

“A career setback can be like a romance gone bad. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, you are doomed to repeat them, most likely in your next job. Many professionals are so eager to flee a bad job or fearful of being jobless, they jump from one job, mismatch to the next, just like some people do in their personal relationships. If you’ve been knocked down but haven’t looked at what caused your stumble, you’re setting yourself up to fall again” – Bradley G. Richardson [To Move Ahead Again, Learn from Career Setbacks].

I trust this post has blessed you. Please, take out time to share your testimony with me to God’s glory by sending me a direct mail to prosperanangblog@yahoo.com

You’re deeply loved, highly favoured and greatly blessed because you’re God’s righteousness in Christ, and a life-giving spirit just like Jesus.