Sometimes we can be hard on others.
Sometimes others can be hard on us.
Sometimes we can be hard on ourselves.
Putting errors into perspective helps you grow, learn from your mistakes and even welcome them as stepping stones; part of the learning curve in your unique personal development.
If you make a mistake; stop to think of the many occasions when you were successful.
Taking an example; let us imagine you have burnt your dinner. Oh dear. Easy to focus on this one “disaster”, yet how many times have you cooked dinners without burning them? Hundreds? Thousands? More than that?
A useful exercise:
Create an Epitaph in your mind such as “Always burnt the dinner” – helps throw some reality back into your thinking.
Before berating yourself – stop – think – reflect. Instead of punishing yourself, consider the many occasions you succeeded. See how they often vastly outweigh a single mistake.
Your errors build you. Make you stronger. Learn from your mistakes and remember to put your errors into perspective.
Here are some questions to ponder about ownership of your errors:
Who owns your mistakes?
Do you really lose anything through them; such as loss of face?
What if, when you burnt your dinner, you were alone at the top of a mountain and only you knew? Would you feel the same way about the mistake?
What percentage of your errors might purely be thought-based?
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