International Day of Happiness 2023
13/03/2023Men’s Health – no woman says, “I wish he would talk less…..”
16/06/2023Make More Mistakes!
If you know me at all, you will know that I love to cook. It’s my passion. If I couldn’t be a psychologist, Chef would be my next choice. I often like to challenge myself with complicated recipes. While the food I serve is often very tasty, I also make MANY mistakes to get to the final product (I once had to throw away 12 eggs…).
One of my clients was telling me a story where she was doing an assignment for an on-line course and making mistakes. She reported yelling at the computer “I’m stupid!” after a few mistakes. Her 6-year-old son overheard her, came over and patted her and said “Mum, you’re not stupid. You just don’t know the answer yet.”
In other words, “Keep on trying and making mistakes until you get it right!”.
30 years ago, a client was job seeking and not having any luck. He came in one day and handed me the sheet below with a smile on his face.
He had made many mistakes and each time he applied for a job he fine-tuned his application until he got a YES.
We often expect to get anything we do right the first time and when we don’t, we become overwhelmed. Forgetting that this was not our last attempt but often our first, second or even third attempt. The last attempt will be the YES. You might get it after 3 attempts or it may be 87, but don’t give up.
Many great things come out of making mistakes – these are just a few.
- We learn and grow.
- We become more resilient.
- Our creativity increases.
- We develop empathy for others.
- We learn to ask for help.
But most importantly, we gain humility that we are not perfect!
So, get out there and make more mistakes.