Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Why Making Mistakes Is The Path To Success

I remember when I first started working I made a mistake that my manager called me out on. I don't really remember what it was now but it did kind of get me down a bit. Later, I was talking to a guy I worked with about it and he said, you know what, if you aren't making mistakes you aren't working.

That always kind of stuck with me because he was telling me to embrace mistakes and to not shy away from making more of them. Now he wasn't telling me to be a moron and make mistakes on purpose. What he was telling me is that in the course of taking action toward a goal you have set, making mistakes is a natural by product of the steps required to eventually see success.

Some of you know that I am in the midst of another thirty day challenge. That challenge is to write an article on this site everyday. I'm doing that to get the process moving. And along the way, I see mistakes I make (usually right after I publish that days article.)

But the point of doing this challenge for me was to start taking consistent action and to start the process of making mistakes. Every day I do that I am closer to my goal of the site I want to bring to my readers.

It also provides me practice on working on my craft here at the Black Belt Project. With every article I write, I focus my mind on the task at hand. It forces me to look at the site on a daily basis. It forces me to think about my goal.

And once that thought process starts rolling, it helps clarify the end goal. My mind starts thinking about solutions. It starts brainstorming ideas that weren't there before I took action.

That's the thing, problem solving is the key to success. The way you really go about solving problems is by working on them. Just thinking about the problem can only take you so far. You need the feedback that harsh real world doing provides you.

I guess that is why I sometimes avoid taking action. I don't want the world telling me I stink at what I do. Stinking at what I do is what leads me to improve. It leads me to the path of success.

So my advice to you is to start taking action, start making mistakes and start learning that you stink at the task at hand. Once you start doing that, you will begin making progress to reaching your goals.

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Michael Kuhn

Black Belt Project: Build Mental Strength

2 comments

I want to let you know. I look forward to you daily post. It gives me food for though. It shows me ways to grow. When your not moving there is not action.

Thanks for the nice comment Tina. I appreciate hearing that.


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