Are Mistakes Failures?

In today’s society there seems to be a strong pressure for us to all perform, to perform well (in fact perfectly) and to achieve the top of anything we attempt.

 

We make mistakes!!

 

How many of us admit that we’ve made a mistake, and what does it mean to admit to this mistake?

 

This week, I had a day where I made a mistake.  Instead of following my routine that I had set aside for the month of November, I didn’t follow my plan. Yes, this was a mistake.

 

What it catastrophic?

 

NO!!

 

Did I Learn From This?

 

YES!!

 

What did I learn I hear you ask?

 

Well, I learnt a couple of things – okay, I’ve listed 7.

 

1. To be kind to myself
2. To improve on the me I was yesterday
3. To be the best me I can be
4. To make a mistake is to learn
5. To learn is to grow
6. To grow is LIVING!
7. Once a mistake is made, to learn from it and move back is powerful

 

I’ve been following the teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz and his wonderfully quoted book, The Four Agreements.  These four agreements are:

 

1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Don’t take anything personally
3. Don’t make assumptions
4. Always do your best.

 

These agreements came to mind for me strongly when I admitted to myself that it had been a mistake to not follow my program for a day.  However, the tempered my response to this mistake, and supported my growth from that mistake.

 

Within these, I was gentle to myself for slipping off the rails (being impeccable with my word), telling myself how easy it will be to step back onto these rails and be a better person performing the task than I was the day before (always doing my best) and not blaming myself (not taking it personally that I slipped).  I have stepped back onto the rails, with determination and gratitude for where I have developed to as a person.

 

A year ago, it would have been so easy to tell myself off for slipping off a planned strategy, to have felt bad for doing the ‘wrong’ thing, to then continue being off the rails. Now, life is much gentler.

 

Remember: be gentle to yourself, so you can be gentle to others

 

Responsibility for your mistakes, results in growth