I have recently been reading Dean Smith's book A Coach's Life in which he presents a simple formula for dealing with our mistakes.
1. Recognize It
2. Admit It
3. Learn from It
4 Forget It
If we fail to take the correct approach to any one of these steps, we are taking dangerous steps toward failure instead of embracing opportunity.
Recognizing our mistakes can sometimes be very difficult. Sometimes we are afraid to recognize that we make mistakes because we don't want to accept that we have weaknesses. If we pretend that we are perfect, we will never learn from our mistakes, and we are in danger of repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Admitting our mistakes can be humbling as well. Have you ever met someone who can never admit that they made a mistake? This is dangerous ground to be on. Sometimes admitting our mistakes can be the first liberating step toward learning important lessons.
Learning from our mistakes is the part that takes effort. If we recognize our mistakes, admit that we made them, and then turn around and make the same mistake again, we are only hurting ourselves. In order to learn from our mistakes we must take simple actions to make sure we don't repeat the same mistake twice.
Moving on. This can be one of the most difficult things to do when dealing with mistakes. We seem to remember our own mistakes much longer than other people remember our mistakes. People are forgiving! Forgive yourself and move on. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how we deal with these mistakes that separates those who fail from those who succeed!
