3 ways to make a Good Mistake

I have been reading about entrepeneurs recently and one common theme is their attitude toward mistakes.

Repeat after me:  Mistakes are a good thing.
Mistakes are how we learn.
Failure is not a four letter word (literally).
We may fail multiple times before we succeed.  And our success will be that much bigger because we learned so much along the way.

Don't get me wrong, we should not make mistakes on purpose, but we should not beat ourselves up so much when we make them.  As moms (and employees) we get caught up in the thought that we have to be perfect.  That there is no room for mistakes.  But most of the time what we stress about is not life threatening.

Sometimes we need to take a lesson from our kids.

1.  Make a mistake and try again
When your baby starts to walk, she might cry a little the first time she falls, but that does not stop her from trying to stand again.  Why do we give up after trying something once?  It is through our failures that we learn.

2.  Change the approach
Think about how your kids try to get something they want.  They will start out asking you.  If you say no, they go to dad.  As they get older, they may change the way they ask, to be more persuasive.  If that does not work they go to grandma.  If they fail, they are not afraid to ask multiple times and in the process they learn what works.  

3.  Celebrate the wins
My son is taking a basketball class.  Do you know how many times he throws the ball up in the air and completely misses the basket?  But when he does make it in the hoop, he is so proud he dances around the gym.  Appreciate that moment when you find a winning formula.  And it will feel even sweeter in contrast to some of your failures.

If we teach our kids anything it should be to accept failure and learn from it.  There will be mistakes and disappointments.  Learn from them, improve and refuse to give up. You will be more successful in the long run.  

Think about the scientific method. It is an iterative process of testing and forming a new hypothesis based on the results. 

Here are a couple failure areas that I am trying to learn from:

Cooking delicious meals - I am not going to give up on my quest to find meals my family enjoys that I can cook in 30 minutes.  Yes, I have all the cookbooks and Pinterest resources, but I need to practice, practice, pick myself up after a failed crockpot failure and practice again.

Exercise - I know I am not alone in this, but finding time to go for a walk, let alone go to the gym is challenging.  But I am not going to give up.  I am going to renew my effort to make this a priority and find a new approach to guard the time and the resolve to make this happen.  Newest idea - walk at lunch or while I am on a conference call.