One Apple A Day #584 - Own your failures
We all make mistakes. Some are small, others have a significant impact. Sometimes nobody notices, other times they get all the spotlight. Sometimes it's our fault, other times it just happens. We all pass through some failures in life. Or at least, I know I did, and I'll do again. Many times.
What I found to be very important is what we do with our errors and failures.
We can make excuses. I was great at this when I was a teenager (that means until my late thirties). I was able to find the most creative explanations to divert the blame on anything else but me. And things didn't improve when I began blaming myself. The outcome was the same; I was telling myself that I wasn't in charge of my life. A comforting but dangerous lie.
Things really change when we decide to own our failures. When we take responsibility for them and accept that we are human and imperfect. We make mistakes, it is part of the growing journey. When we own them, we can learn from them. There is this one crucial question that I ask myself when I fail; What can I learn from this failure/defeat/error?
Every failure is an opportunity to learn and grow, but only if you own it.
Oh yes, you can also ignore them and keep going through life as if nothing happened. I tried this route, and it worked for a while, but they never really went away. At some point, they always came back to haunt me.