Make Excellent Mistakes
What kind of excellent mistake have you made that led you to a later success?
As Daniel Pink, author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need says, "The most successful people make spectacular mistakes--huge, honking screw ups! Why? They're trying to do something big. But each time they make a mistake, they get a little better and move a little closer to excellence."
Are you willing to make mistakes on your road to success?
Are you willing to make mistakes on your road to success?
As we get older, we make mistakes and some people make many while others learn from the mistakes of people around them. They say you learn from your mistakes and that is very true. I have made small mistakes in life that have taught me good lessons in life, but nothing major yet that has led me to a better success. It’s still too early to tell if I will make more mistakes or not, and I am sure I will because we are all humans.
ReplyDeleteNo one is perfect. As humans, we all learn from mistakes, whether they are mistakes made by others or mistakes we make ourselves. I believe that some mistakes are made by those who have the ability to think out side the box. Everyone has different points of views and ideas as to how they perceive things and later, we determine whether things are right or wrong. If we don't make mistakes, we can never learn how to become better.
ReplyDeleteLooking back at the question asked by the author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, Daniel Pink, I can say that I am willing to make mistakes on my road to success. If I don't make mistakes, I don't think I will ever Know if I am going on the right path or not. My mistakes and my efforts to perfect those mistakes will show my dedication I have for my work.
Practice makes perfect. Not really, but you know what I mean. You have to keep trying if you want to be successful. Most of the time, things don't work out exactly the way we want them to at first. It takes someone with diligence and strength to keep pushing past all the setbacks. I've made a lot of mistakes already and I'm prepared to make a lot more down the road.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, since I've already made mistakes, and I don't doubt that I will ever stop making mistakes. I always remind myself of those mistakes, since they helped become who I am today.
ReplyDeleteSee, I used to be afraid of failure. I detested it, loathed it, and swore I would never fail. Failure, as cliche it may sound, was not an option I would ever consider (at least not back then). But, after a series of arguments, not being heard, and being stressed without refusing to acknowledge that I was stressed from all of the workload I had taken (three honors classes, plus a college class that met every Tuesday and Thursday after school at 4 to 5), everything eventually fell apart.
My grades slipped, my relationships with every one I knew deteriorated until I was left with no one but myself, and I found myself not caring any more. Things didn't seem to matter any more. Grades became inconsequential. I stopped doing homework, because what was the point if I couldn't even get past the first page of requirements, something I always breezed through within the first 15 minutes.
I failed every day. And for the longest time, I didn't care that I was failing because nobody seemed to care about my predicament. Family problems at home, always arguing, never acknowledging my successes or presence, all faded into the background, into white, fuzzy static.
I grew numb. I grew accustomed to failing every day. I failed at academics. I failed at trying to cultivate and maintain strong relationships with people who I thought were my friends. I failed at trying to be a good son for my mother. I failed at being a part of a family that I thought loved me It eventually came to a point where I said, "What's the point of it all?"
I stopped trying to do my best in class. The teachers would always sound so disappointed in my lackluster work. I didn't care. As far I was concerned, they were just another name to add to a long list of people disappointed in me. I had gotten comfortable with failure.
To wrap this all up, though I did go through a rough period, I eventually came to learn that the mistakes I made were not wholly bad, since those mistakes forced me to re-evaluate who I was and what I valued. I learned that forcing students to be competitive with each other in addition to taking on many extracurricular activities was toxic. That forced them to juggle so many things, to become someone that most people would call an AP student. Becoming someone they weren't. I realized that AVID and its message, the way it was delivered, how it was run, did not really apply to me since I already knew everything; some of the beliefs were just not sensible or understanding to other people's situations.
I learned that being perfect was just not an option, not a realistic one any way. I learned it was okay to fail, because my failure taught and gave me so many things, not just life lessons about the world around me, but also my identity. I finally knew who I really was, after a long time of not knowing how to answer that question.
Whoops, forgot to mention how long ago this was. This was all the way back in 10th grade.
ReplyDelete