Have you ever watched a child learn to walk?

They don’t start with walking do they? First they crawl. I’ve seen some little buggers who can only go in reverse at first, but even then, they’re still mobile, and this is quite an achievement.

It’s not long before they’re standing with support from any object they can use to pull themselves up and any person who’s willing to hold them up. And they bounce and sometimes they fall down.

Actually, they fall down a lot, don’t they?

I’ve heard it said that that’s why diapers give some extra cushion, we expect them to fall. And then they take some assisted steps and they fall down some more, but finally they get it. And it is a huge achievement!

We expect them to fall, it’s part of the process of learning. If we didn’t let them fall, they wouldn’t grow, they wouldn’t learn to walk.

Why do we deny ourselves the same opportunity to grow?  

Mistakes, mis-steps, failures, trial-and-error these are part of the process of learning and growing.

Embrace them.

You will make mistakes and this means that you are growing and learning new ways to look at the situation. You are becoming a better decision maker with each decision you make, whether you get the result you want or not.

Own the mistakes, learn from them, and keep building to success.

 

John Ryan


Host of Key Conversations for Leaders Podcast, Executive Coach, Consultant, and Trainer

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