QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake– you can’t learn anything from being perfect.”
Adam Osborne, author & computer engineer who created the first version of a portable laptop in 1981, the Osborne 1, weighing a total of 24 lbs and able to be tucked underneath an airplane seat.
IDEA OF THE DAY
As a toddler and young child, our days are filled with making mistakes. Learning how to grab things, putting everything in our mouths to see what’s edible, and gathering bumps and bruises as we learn to crawl and walk are all part of getting better at the basics.
Yet as we get older, many of us fear making mistakes. Perhaps we’ve been taught that striving for perfection is the only path forward. Getting reprimanded for goofing up leaves us feeling deflated and far from willing to make future blunders. Over time, the window of mistake-making becomes smaller and smaller until we feel stuck where we stand. And when we DO make a mistake, the amount of self-judgment and criticism makes us feel even less excited about going into the unknown.
This is where I meet many of my clients. They want to make a change but are unclear on how to get unstuck. And though part of the work has to do with defining clear goals and taking action, a large part of growth is about being open to making mistakes, hitting dead ends, and trying again. In some ways, we are relearning how to make as many mistakes as possible, recognizing that by making the mistakes, we get stronger, better, and wiser in future experiences.
So as we start a new month, embrace a mindset of being open to making mistakes. I’ll be right next to you, learning and making blunders along the way. Let’s be perfectly imperfect together!
QUESTION OF THE DAY
How do you want to define a mistake in such a way that you are open to making more?
(My definition of a mistake is “a lesson that brings me closer to wisdom”)