If you’re not making mistakes,
then you’re not doing anything.
–John Wooden (1910 – )
Hall of Fame basketball coach for UCLA
won a record 10 NCAA championships
So many people do everything they can to avoid making
mistakes – yet mistakes are the corrective feedback we
need to help us reach our goals. Trying to avoid mistakes
is a HUGE mistake. Better to move and correct mistakes
as you’re in motiion than sit idle trying to figure out how not to
make a wrong move. The latter never seems to work.
When you’re in an airplane, most of the time the plane is
off course. When you’re driving in a car – you must always
have your hands on the wheel so you can make minor
adjustments. You are continually modifying and correcting
your course based upon ongoing feedback.
We tend to forget this when we get an idea to achieve
a specific goal. We tend to think the key to success is never
making a mistake. It’s not.
When you make a mistake and a teacher points it out to
you – the answer is simple: Thank you for telling me that.
I’ll work on that.
The average person says he’s sorry and apologizes when
a mistake is pointed out to him.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
That’s all you ever hear – along with no change in behavior.
Better to hear “thank you – I’ll get right on that” – and witness
a change in behavior.
People who see feedback as helpful are grateful to learn what
is steering them away from the goal. It may be a tough thing
to do – to listen and be open – but it’s what the best of the best
do.
Yes, you have the option to agree or disagree with the feedback –
and you’ll become better at discerning what is helpful and what
isn’t the more you practice – but you’ll never get anywhere if
you view mistakes as negative and feedback as undesireable.
My best students LOVE being advised – even, as they would say
it, “raked over the coals.” And wouldn’t you know it – three of my
students have played Carnegie Hall. Amazingly, all three of these
Carnegie Hall performers are the BEST listeners and take advice
better than anyone else. They beg for me to show them their
mistakes.
Keep all of this in mind as you go through your day today. Mistakes
are nothing to fear. Nor is the feedback that will help you improve.
Best,
P.S. There’s a reason why the good get great. And that reason has
more to do with their minds than anything else. It’s not talent, or
smarts, or who you know. It’s who you are inside your own brain.
Successful people get this and want more of it. Those on the road to
failure don’t get it – and that is why they continue to fail. Make a choice
which road you want to travel on. Make a choice to launch yourself like
a torpedo to the destination of YOUR choosing. Check out the Psycho-
Cybernetics Fearless Success Coaching Program now by going to