Thoughtful Thursdays-#320 November 16th The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast

Mistakes Make Me Better

I was talking with my writing accountability partner the other day. We make sure to schedule in a time to meet as it can be hard with our busy schedules, but we’re committed to our goals and to helping each other out. And in our chat this past week he was feeling stuck in what direction to go. He was in that analysis of paralysis mode trying to decide where to put his focus.

Three things cluttered his mind…finishing his book, starting a blog, and starting a podcast all while figuring out how to juggle his two other two jobs he was working. As he looked into the specifics of writing a blog he got caught in the rabbit hole of all the small details and then spent hours researching SEO. He then questioned if he should start a podcast first, or start it with the blog… and what would be the most appropriate title so he wouldn’t be pigeon holed incase his title didn’t encapsulate where he would go in the future. All while deciding the direction of his book.

On our call he said he’d spent a few hours watching videos on all these things. And I know I’ve been here many times, in fact it’s easy for me to get stuck here again if I don’t have clarity in what I want to do. So I asked him a question:

Are you trying to reach people, or are you trying to be perfect?

And immediately he said reach people, as he said it with a lot of energy. So I asked him what avenue would be best for him to focus on now, and put something out there. We get so caught in having things to be perfect that we don’t get our work or our message out into the world. We’re afraid of it not being good enough, we are afraid of it not being perfect enough, and thus we never get it out into the world to fine tune it.

It’s scary to put yourself out in the world. Whether it be your thoughts in a blog, podcast, or book; whether it be asking someone out on a date that you’re interested…and unsure if they’ll say yes; whether it be working on your current relationship by being open, honest, and vulnerable with someone you don’t want to disappoint; or whether it be taking a chance on yourself to do something that you’ve been worried you might not be able to do—such as go back to school, change to new job that you want, or take a pay cut to find a job that is less stressful on you.

We all have had our own life tragedies, and I keep reminding myself that no matter what has happened…it’s going to be ok. The mistake that feels world ending will work itself out or make more sense someday. In the past…I’ve put more faith in the negative continuing to happen rather than having a faith in the good continually blessing my life. God has always provided me with what I needed…in fact He provided the right struggles for me so I could become stronger for the next phase in my life. But until I could let go of the pain and hurt, until I could let go of trying to be perfect…I would stay in my confusion, I would stay in my darkness, and I would stay stuck…in places I wasn’t meant to be in.

We strive for perfection because we want to put something great out in the world, but perfection gives us reasons and excuses for us not move. It gives us a reason to stay comfortable…and anything or anyone that’s ever made huge changes had to be tested, challenged, and be taken out of their comfort zone. Everything you want… is right outside of your comfort zone. So while it may feel like the end of the world to make mistakes, they are just learning tools for you, they are strengthening tools for you, and they are the make-up of life. They help to make us more beautiful. I’ve never met a beautiful person who wasn’t beaten up by life, and still continued to keep moving forward through all of their struggles…because in the end…they knew something more was on the other side. Your mistakes don’t define you, what you do after your mistakes…will.

Today’s Personal Commitment:
What’s keeping you from moving forward because of a perfection mentality? What’s something you want to do, but you’ve told yourself that it’s not really all that important because you’re afraid of looking silly making mistakes, or not feeling good enough when you try to tackle it?  You are…your only obstacle. You won’t be great at something the first time you try it, it takes practice and building your gifts up to become better at them. We live this lie where we see people doing things we want to…and say, “I could never be as good as them.” The root of that lie is we haven’t seen what that person we admired went through to get to where they are. Yes, they have natural gifts and talents just like we do…but we didn’t see all their mistakes, we didn’t see their years of trial and error, we didn’t see their commitment to keep going even when they didn’t believe in themselves at times. I was watching this show on children magicians, and these kids talked about how it took years to perfect one trick…and I was really floored by that because I would have thought maybe it took them a week to master it.

So again, what’s important to you that you’ve been avoiding? You don’t have to be perfect, in fact you never will be, but when you are willing to make mistakes to go after something that matters to you…that’s where the change begins to happen. The things we want take time, so become aware that your commitment isn’t a in week, or even in a monthly endeavor…it’s a lifelong process in mastering what matters to you.

Mistakes Make Me Better

 

 

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

 

 

Music by:
- Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
- I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
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