The word “mistake” is derived from an old archery term which simply means “missed the mark” or my definition a “miss-take”!

In today’s frenetic world a “mistake” seems to carry with it a certain dramatic negative stigma which often has little or no direct correlation to the action or lack of action that the label has been attributed to. Sure there a small mistakes and big mistakes. The consequences of those mistakes can vary markedly yet most of our so-called mistakes are on a smaller scale.

At the end of the day we are all human and as the old saying goes “to err is human, to forgive is divine”.

Yet if you see your mistakes as failures then you are more likely to over dramatise them. They become bigger than they really are and then start to take on a life of their own as they impact on your self-esteem and self-belief.

If you take the chance to read biographies of famous and successful people you will soon notice that their lives have also been littered with mistakes. The primary reason these people have succeeded is that they have used these mistakes to learn from and to adapt what they have been doing accordingly. They didn’t just beat up on themselves  and say “I’m useless and good for nothing” instead they acknowledged their miss-take and changed course or tried again and made changes to ensure different and better results. Thomas Eddison is reported to have tried and failed over 1,000 times before he was successful with the light bulb!

If we continually focus on our perceived flaws and historical failures or what may not go right in the future we become highly sensitised and overly critical of ourselves.

Like most things in life the more we tend to focus on certain things (positive or negative) the more we seem to attract things of a similar nature. Do you want to be attracting more “mistakes “which make you feel bad or are you prepared to accept that nonone is perfect and life is set up so that we can learn from our “miss-takes”. There is a marked difference between these approaches.

Of course “miss-takes” can be inconvenient, create extra work and expense and cause conflict. Thats all part of life so get over it!

One of the first lessons I learned as a junior lawyer straight out of university from my very first job was that  if you make a “miss-take” acknowledge it rather than try to cover it up (as that will only make it worse) and do what you can to rectify it. Then move on and make sure you make the necessary changes to ensure you don’t repeat it.

That lesson has stood me in good stead for all of my professional career and I suggest you adopt it if you don’t already practice it.

Whatever you do be kind to yourself!

Look forward to the learning that is available from your “miss-takes” rather than wait in trepidation of your mistakes and failures!