In this blog there is one short story, two quotes and some questions for you to answer.
I was travelling through London Waterloo station yesterday and next to me stood a mum with a child. I am not sure what the little one did but I heard him saying to his mum: ‘it was a mistake, I am sorry’. His mum said, ‘it’s not a mistake but an experience, you have learnt’. I was touched by this and wished there would be more people who would respond in this way.
When you make a mistake, and something goes wrong you have two choices – you can look at it as a failure, as something that is bad and can’t be repaired. This usually comes with language that is self-destructive as you beat yourself up for something that you can’t change anymore. The other option is to accept the situation, learn from it and know what you do better next time. Don’t waste your energy on recycling thoughts of how things went wrong. As long as you know what you would do differently you have learnt. There might be times when you wouldn’t actually do anything differently for a particular reason and that’s fine too. It is your self-awareness that is key here. Reflection helps to look back at something that happened; what matters most though is the action that will follow.
It was Steve Maraboli who said: ‘As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.’
This is a great quote. Can you start looking at rejections and setbacks as a redirection? Reframe the situation you are in. Sometimes you can’t see the full picture but trust that things will fall into place.
Carlos Acosta, one of the greatest ballet dancers said to a young generation of dancers during his farewell at Royal Ballet Opera House: ‘Allow yourself to make mistakes, there is nothing like right or wrong, there is no such thing as failure because life is a learning process’. He added: ‘So be curious and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy because one day you blink and you realise that 70 years have gone by.’
What recent ‘mistake’ or ‘setback’ can you see as a redirection?
What have you learnt through it?
What action are you taking now?