Contrary to our Ego’s beliefs, we are all prone to making mistakes. Hopefully, we are not 
repeating old ones – that means we are learning and growing as people.
Now, before you start thinking I’m just an optimistic, glass half full kind of girl, who has no sense of how mortifying it can be to make a mistake, I confess openly that I’ve made some real doosies! The upside is that I’m a quick learner and I don’t often make the same mistake twice! (I especially never repeat the ones that cost me money or income.)
My point is, for many of us, our self esteem is all wrapped up in past mistakes. Here is a universal truth: mistakes are part of the human adventure of life. Without making a mistake (even one that may have cost you dearly), how would you know what doesn’t work? Do you feel an inability to risk making even a minor mistake? In life, sometimes your gut is the only decision-making tool around. If you are too afraid to make a mistake, how will you ever learn if there’s a better way to do something?
Think about your employment history and the mistakes you made in those positions. I’m not asking you to dwell in negative experiences, instead I am asking you to use the clarity that comes with 20/20 hindsight to see where you may have taken a different measure to have avoided the mistake altogether and/or what was the benefit that came from the mistake once it was made manifest? Just pick one instance. Give it a quick dissection. Was it your pride (assuming you know all the answers) that got in the way of asking the right questions so that you had all the information you needed to produce the desired outcome? Was it inexperience? Was it compromising to external pressures to do something you knew wasn’t the generally accepted practice, but you did it anyway?
Whatever the reason, ask yourself, what would you do differently if the situation presented itself again? If this question was to come up in an interview, have you simply recited a prepared and benign answer or was your authentic answer seen by the interviewer as someone who has an honest perspective of their shortcomings but also possess the capacity to learn very valuable lessons from those mistakes?
It isn’t easy to be that honest with yourself. Our Ego would have us convincing ourselves that everything we do is beyond reproach and that we seldom, if ever make mistakes. The genuineness that comes from owning your mistake without being defensive and without external blaming is a quality that is becoming rarer today. When thinking about how you can set yourself apart from your peers – think about all the experiences you have had (even the mistakes), and remember that you alone have had those exact mistakes in your career and life and when viewed with integrity to your SELF, you’ll see that it has taught you important things. You have learned a lot about what NOT to do or what DOES NOT work; about what you are capable of doing and where your line in the sand is (you now have boundaries) and you have learned how to be an honest observer of your experiences and that increases your authenticity (which as previously stated is a HUGE asset in the world today.)
When someone makes a mistake and admits their wrong doing, how does your perception of them change? Do you think mistakes can be valuable?
