When we learn that we’ve made a mistake, we are usually ashamed, upset, unhappy or angry. While these are now considered normal reactions, this response mechanism needs to undergo a paradigm shift.
I recently saw a video by Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, where he advised young people to not be afraid of making mistakes. I would take that one step further and say no one should be afraid of making mistakes.
The biggest hold-up
The fear of mistakes is often the biggest constraint a person faces in his/her individual growth. Although there are enough sayings and quotations about ‘mistakes being the stepping stone to success’, very few people internalise the thought. The majority tends to avoid mistakes and in many instances, this thought itself becomes a big mistake in life!
And if that is the case, is it not contradictory? On one hand, my suggestion is to embrace mistakes and yet I’m advising you against making another kind of blunder.
Let me clarify this contradiction with this quote:
“The wise learn from other’s mistakes; the smart from their own; and the fools never learn.”
More often than not, this quote is misinterpreted as an advice against making mistakes. Its true meaning, however, is that a person should learn from their blunders — only then will it have any value. If a person does not learn from their actions, they won’t grow at all and definitely not be successful.
Celebrating mistakes
Here’s how you can make the most of making an error.
~ Be open to being wrong: Take decisions, even if they turn out to be wrong. But take a stand if you think you are right, and act on the same.
~ Examine the decision and learn from the outcome : In the case of both success and failure, it is important to evaluate what went right and what went wrong. In most cases, a person gets caught up in success or drowns in failure. Very rarely does he/she sit down and evaluate a decision, especially if it is unpleasant to face.
However, if this self evaluation isn’t done, they will never learn from that experience. This is the crucial difference between being smart and being a fool.
~ Overcome the fear of making mistakes : In reality, we do not fear the actual outcome of mistakes — we’re more worried about the consequences of such blunders, especially with regard to what people say.
We fear the opinion of others, and very often, this fear makes a person hide or downplay the mistake and its consequences. This will obviously not allow him/her to examine their mistakes. And they will commit similar blunders in the future.
So go ahead, make mistakes. Celebrate it, as it is indicative of your capability to take decisions and stands. But remember to always learn from them and not repeat the same.