Make Mistakes Work for You

2 Minute Read"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear you will make one." ~Elbert Hubbard.One of the greatest tragedies of modern society is the nearly universal fear of making mistakes. Many intellectual people have the dysfunctional perfectionist belief that mistakes are somehow unforgivable transgressions—something to be ashamed of.

"One of the greatest tragedies of modern society is the nearly universal fear of making mistakes." 

 In contrast, making a mistake through lack of knowledge or experience is not wrong, bad or shameful.  Mistakes are simply steps in the normal learning process. If we condemn human error, then we must also reject progress.If the fear of making errors takes over your workplace, it puts a halt to initiative and creativity. When perfectionism reigns, it produces hesitancy and reluctance. Thus, this becomes a severe problem in today’s business environment.

Transform your attitude toward making mistakes (and positively influence others around you) by doing a few simple things:

• Believe in yourself. Trust that the positive actions you take outweigh your mistakes along the way.
• Stop striving for perfection. Face it. NOBODY is perfect. NOTHING is ever truly perfect, and we could spend countless hours doing nothing but making something faultless without necessarily making it better.
• Begin viewing every error as a lesson. A stepping stone forward. Continuous improvement first begins with either a real or anticipated error!
• Learn by action. Aim toward personal goals. And if you experience a setback, you have two choices: stay the course or make adjustments.
• Project a positive mental attitude about mistakes. Set the example for your team. This allows others to do the same.

Mistakes are human, natural, and many times unavoidable.  In fact, errors are not important — your attitude toward them is. Leaders make mistakes because they take risks. And they vow to do what is necessary to avoid the same mistake in the future.[bctt tweet="The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard" username="RevelaGroup"][bctt tweet="One of the greatest tragedies of modern society is the nearly universal fear of making mistakes." username="RevelaGroup"]