Mistakes are your friends

I thought I would share a thought for thoughtful Thursday.

Today we talk about strategies you can use to turn mistakes into life lessons that's going to help in future.

Number One

This can be uncomfortable and hard to do. If you make a mistake it's important to acknowledge the error in your ways.

Quite often, what we can tend to do is we can downplay the mistakes, because it's so much more comfortable. If you're in a leadership role, you may say things like

"I'm so sorry, that you feel that way," or you may say,

"It's unfortunate that this has happened."

What you're doing is you're minimising your responsibility. It is much easier to minimise your responsibility in the mistake that has happened.

Before we can learn to turn our mistakes into a lesson, we need to stand up. We need to acknowledge the error that we may have made by saying something like,

"you know what I messed up,' or "I could have done better."

By doing that. you are allowing change to happen.  when you can stand up and acknowledge your mistakes.

Have you done that before?

When something's gone wrong and you downplay it. As you don't want to take responsibility for something that you have done.

An example is the current marketing campaign I am running. I haven't written the four sales emails, that is leaving a lot of money sitting on the table.

For me, I will say, "that's unfortunate that that has happened." And I acknowledge that was my responsibility to do that.

Now we can feel super uncomfortable when having to admit that you were wrong. Or if you have to admit that there is something that you could have done better.

When you can actually verbalise that, you're on the on the path to change.

Number Two

You acknowledge and take ownership and responsibility in the mistake that has happened.

Start asking yourself some serious questions, not dwelling on what has gone wrong.

Things that you can do in regards to asking yourself those serious questions is "what did go wrong?" or "What can I do better next time?". Or "what can I learn from this mistake that I didn't know before?".

Then you forgive yourself for not knowing what you need to know.  When asking yourself these serious questions, write them down. This is a good action, putting pen to paper and writing down the answers to those serious questions.

Now you ask yourself, "what can I do better now moving forward?",  "What can I change?"

"How can I make it better next time?"

"What will  I do to improve my situation?".

Number Three

Now you've written these down, you want to make a plan. Stop beating yourself up with what it is that you did. Forgive yourself for what you didn't know. Don't beat yourself up. That won't help change the situation or the mistake that you have been through.

Spend more time thinking about how you can learn from it moving forward into the future. Create that plan. Write down detailed steps of things that you can do moving forward as detailed as possible.

You need to remain flexible as well. Because you've written it down, it's not set in stone. So if things need to move around or changed or negotiated, leave space for change as well. Be flexible.

Once you've written your plan down, tell it to somebody.

Find an accountability buddy, tell them what you're going to do to change or find a way to track your progress. Excel spreadsheets, things like that are fabulous way. But by telling somebody and writing it down, you're putting it out there into the universe that you are ready.  Not dwell on what has been but move forward into the future.

Number Four

The final thing I want you to embrace is that you need to remember why?

Why is it that you want to do better?

Why is it that you want to improve?

Sometimes one weak decision that has led to a mistake.

If we lose the reason behind why we want to move forward and improve our life it can all come crumbling down.

Put these into place and remember your why. Remember your self discipline and always come back to you why.

Self discipline, like confidence, can be a reason a lot of us stop from making that next decision.  It holds us from stepping forward. Stepping into uncomfortable areas that may improve life and situation.

The same with self discipline. The more we practise self discipline, delay gratification, it makes us mentally stronger. The more you use it, the stronger that muscle will become.

As entrepreneurs we ned self discipline. To get ourselves out of the bed in the morning and get to the computer to do the work that we want to do to move forward.

Nobody's forcing us to get up and work. We do it ourselves every day. See mistake like you would say hi to a problem, "you've come to visit me today."

Every day, something's going to go wrong. Don't dwell on it.

Mistakes are an opportunity to build strength. In your mind and to improve yourself in the future.

"Fail forward," know that it's coming. But don't dwell. When you dwell you hold yourself back from moving forward.

Who out there uses lessons as a mistake? Who needs to improve the amount of time that they spend dwelling on things that go wrong?

The longer you beat up, dwell on your mistakes, the more you hold yourself back and see that life lesson. Because it is a gift. The only way we succeed in life is by seeing our mistakes as a as an opportunity to learn. To improve ourselves and forgive yourself for what you didn't know before you move knew it.

Recap

Quick recap is one acknowledge that you've made an error. Number two, ask yourself the tough questions and write them down, put pen to paper.

Number three is to create a plan moving forward.

Number four, always remember your why.

Why was it that you were trying to do whatever it was that you were trying to do. There would be a reason even though it's failed or you've made a mistake, there was a reason behind it.

Now tell me moving forward. Is something that you've been struggling with? What is one key takeaway from this? What you could put in place in your life into your business into some systems moving forward?

Love you all around the world.

Remember, 'never let anyone dull your sparkle.'