Mistakes are the bomb! Amen
The reason why mistakes feel like failure to some people is how they’ve been conditioned and taught, they’ve drawn these references from the external world. This referencing has created autonomous meanings (of failure) they attach to making mistakes.
I get it.
I used to do it too but now I don’t because I understand that mistakes are like pain – they are required to become resilient.
Imagine the world without mistakes – it’d be filled with lifeless minions that did nothing.
Mistakes exist for me, by virtue of 3 factors; skill, knowledge and experience.
When a mistake is made it is simply indicating a lack of skill, a lack of knowledge or a lack of experience in most cases. That mistake is there by virtue, to highlight what skill, what knowledge, what experience is lacking so I can do what I need to do to acquire it and move on to the next level.
To me, it’s about your relationship with failure and you’re relationship with mistakes, and understanding that failure is not a bad thing, it’s a great thing.
You can either tell yourself that a failure is bad and beat yourself up and that will be your experience. Or, every time you fail you can start to condition yourself to say, failure is good, failure is a good thing. What skills, what knowledge and what experience do I need to acquire and what’s the benefit of this? How am I going to use them to become better, stronger, fitter and more intelligent moving forward?
Keep doing that continuously, continuously, continuously.
Another key to the lock that is life!
Much like we saw with Eric in the early days of the Social Experiment when I’d give him feedback, he’d constantly see that as a bad thing. I’d say, ‘So, what does that mean?’
He’d say, ‘Ugh! I made a mistake. It was a bad thing.’
I would say, ‘No-oo! Mother f***er, mistakes are a good thing…every time I give you a piece of feedback or advice you should be going, ‘Yes! Oh my God I’ve got another code, I’ve got another digit. I’ve got another key to the f***ing lock that is life!’
The more mistakes you make, the more pieces of code that you get, the more digits that you get, the more easier life becomes…
And life just gets great.
Mistakes are the key
Mistakes are the key to life! Failure is the key to life… just change your perspective. Change the meaning.
Ask the questions, what is the benefit of this and how is this serving me?
What skills, knowledge and experience am I getting as a result of this mistake that’ll make me better, stronger, faster, fitter? Make me more wise tomorrow than I was today.
It’s amazing.
Mistakes are the bomb! Amen.
Link to #HeyKerwin 28: