“The emotional scars of our mistakes will teach is far more than the joy of our successes,”- Steven Aitchison
Do you look at past mistakes as terrible events or as growth experiences?
The scars of previous mistakes can prevent us from taking new risks. When we make mistakes, we experience feelings of shame, guilt, and self-doubt. This impacts our confidence and willingness to take on new challenges.
The fear prevents us from taking new risks and trying new things, which can limit our personal growth and prevents us from reaching our full potential.
The story of my coaching client
If you consider past failure a terrible mistake, you must read the story about my coaching client Rahul- a team leader in a big software company.
Rahul was in the same job for over six years and was perfect at it. The company decided to promote him to Team Manager.
Rahul was still determining how he would handle the new role. He accepted the position because the salary increment was too attractive to turn down.
In his new role, Rahul struggled and lost his self-confidence after some time. He was asked to step down. Rahul was devastated.
He agreed to return to his old job as a Team Lead.
Three years later, the company once again promoted him. But the scars of the previous failure were still too raw, and he refused to accept the promotion.
During a coaching call, I convinced him he was a different person from three years ago. Since his last attempt, he has further developed his leadership skills.
He accepted the promotion and became a successful team manager.
The turning point was losing the role the first time, which made Rahul hungrier for success.
The story’s moral is to approach new challenges with a growth mindset, viewing mistakes as opportunities for learning and improvement rather than sources of shame and failure.
Are you clouding any growth experiences as mistakes?
Then it would be best to let go of the mistake and grab the opportunity as Rahul did.
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did.”
– Mark Twain