I hate making mistakes.
It's embarrassing.
It's disappointing.
It doesn't feel good.
But I have a postcard on my desk that has one of those saying beloved by people who like to think they're funny--you know the kind of thing: "You don't have to be crazy to work here--but it helps." And I have to confess I really like this one.
It says, "I've learned so much from my mistakes...I'm thinking of making a few more."
When I look back on what I've learned, a lot of it--probably most of it--has come from mistakes.
Relationship mistakes.
Career mistakes.
Writing mistakes.
Of course they all seemed like good ideas at the time. It's not until you get that sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that you realize you've chosen the wrong partner, job, or plot point and what has seemed like a great thing is about to turn into a learning experience.And it's not until you've lived a while that you realize that this could happen at any time. Is that wisdom or just anxiety? I'm not sure.
These thoughts were brought on by a coaching client asking me how he could be sure that the big project he was about to embark on--which will take a year or more of his life and has no assurance of success--won't turn out to be a mistake.
I had to tell him there's no guarantee, all we can do is pay attention as we go along. Sometimes we can correct our course before going too far in the wrong direction. Other times we actually need to bottom out. The only sure thing is that if we pay attention we'll probably learn something useful
But it won't feel good at the time.
