Think Positively, Not Negatively
More often than not, the number one hindrance to our progress is ourselves, and more specifically, our negative self-talk. Being authentic is what we need to do and to be. When we make a mistake, our tendency is to hide it and forget that we ever made one. All of this is coming from an unfair expectation of ourselves, and others, that we should already know what to do and how to do it. Committing mistakes is something that’s so easy for us to look down on despite the fact that literally everyone is doing it -- there’s not one person that has never done any wrong at least once in their lives. This in itself is counterproductive. The more you repress your flaw the more it will cultivate because you never gave yourself a chance to fix it.
The first step you have to do is recognize failures not as a sign of weakness, but of strength. When you openly acknowledge your failures, you are also opening yourself up to growth -- you can look at it, analyze it, and say, “Okay, this is where I went wrong. How do I keep myself from making this mistake again?” Together with this step is removing this toxic mindset that you have to get things right the first time. Once you put yourself down for failing, you’re digging an even deeper hole for yourself until it becomes something that’s too difficult to get out of. Another thing to remember is that failures are temporary. Once you’ve made a mistake, tripped on the way up the stage for a speech, stuttered in front of many people, sent the wrong email, or made the wrong move in a business deal, they stop there. What you can do afterwards is learn from it, and you can only do that if you accept and recognize that it’s there.
No one’s perfect. It’s cliche, overused, and can get annoying sometimes. But it’s true -- nobody hasn’t ever made a mistake. However, don’t mistake this as an excuse to keep doing the same things that result in the same negative outcomes and consequences. Look at it face to face and say, “I can do better.” Yes, everybody makes mistakes, but nobody is.