One of the questions that I have often asked my staff has been, “How many mistakes have you made today?”
This is not to find out what they are doing wrong, instead, it is to find out if they are experimenting, trying new options, and growing.
No one can win every fight. No one can guess the right outcome all of the time. No one can run without falling sometimes.
It is through our errors, our failures, and our losses that we learn and grow.
Life without “oops, uh-oh, and eek!” can be a very stagnant life indeed.
As an Inspirational Speaker, I have won contests and lost contests. Winning a Speech Contest is an enormous thrill. Getting a trophy for a job well done still makes me as giddy as a child tasting bacon for the first time.
But after a few days of congratulations, what do you have? Just plans for the next contest.
But losing a contest is a rollercoaster of emotions. Sadness, anger, fear, happiness? You question yourself.
“Was my message strong enough?”
“Did I help the audience understand my thoughts?”
“How can I come back stronger, next time?”
Winning can be as simple as making the right connection to the right person at the right time. A good mix of preparation, practice, and luck.
But losing opens up an enormous opportunity to self-examine, ask for advice, and reflect upon your and your opponent’s performance.
Let’s praise 2nd Place for the lessons that we can learn.
As a Problem-Solver and Inventor, I am proud of my creations. I revel in the positive impact that they have on their intended users. But once developed, produced, and promoted, it is onto the next project. We cannot spend the rest of our lives reminiscing about that job well done, we must move on.
But along with those success, come 100’s if not 1,000’s of failures. The mistakes that we make along this path are lessons on “What Not To Do.” Without trying multiple options that don’t work, you can never get to the optimal solution.
I was always thankful for getting paid for my bad ideas as well as my good ideas, because the bad ones always outnumber the good.
Failure can be a powerful tool in driving Successful Creation.
While studying comedy, I learned a harsh reality all too quickly. It is a lot easier to NOT to be funny than it is to make someone laugh. We often work so hard at hitting the bullseye that we sometimes miss the target completely.
Someone smarter than me once said, “Write 100 jokes, keep 10, and hope that 1 is funny.”
You must be prepared to stand on a stage and deliver your best material to zero response in order to truly appreciate a chuckle, a laugh, or a roar!
We have all stumbled through life, made mistakes, lost contests, bombed on stage. That is going to keep on happening. We know that. But it is how we handle those losses that defines us. It is how we accept them and learn from them that makes us better and stronger. It is the courage to accept defeat and move on that shows the world our character.
Rocky Balboa once said, “It is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That is how WINNING is done!”
Don’t be afraid of your failures, don’t hide your mistakes. Learn from them and grow.
So, how many mistakes are you going to make TODAY?
If you are ever looking for lessons on making more mistakes and growing from them, contact me at www.MasterHappiness.com
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