Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them.
— Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
We all make mistakes. Despite our best efforts we trip up. Mistakes can happen due to a variety of reasons from weakness to lack of skill to pure chance. No matter what we do we will continue to make mistakes, so what can we do with them? How can we turn them into a tool for growth?
The wonderful thing about mistakes is that they can teach us where the edges of our skills and abilities lie. Like a treasure map they can tell us where our most valuable opportunities to learn and grow are hidden.
Also like a treasure map, they don’t do us any good if we don’t pay attention to them. You can have the best map in the world, but if you never look at it you can still get lost.
When we use our mistakes as a guide instead of trying to cover them up or hide them, we can follow the path to massive improvement and growth.
When we use our mistakes as a guide and begin to grow we won’t stop making mistakes. Rather we will make new mistakes that will continue to guide us. All we have to do is think of our failures and trip ups as learning opportunities instead of something to be ashamed of. This can be a scary mental shift to make, but the rewards are vast.
What are your current mistakes trying to tell you? What changes or improvements are they guiding you to? How can you be more grateful for your mistakes?