Blog written by recruiter Koreena Geisler-Wagner.
Mistakes are a fact of life; everyone makes them. The only difference is in how people choose to deal with these momentary mishaps: some will take it as an opportunity to learn, grow and move on, others will refuse to see it for what it is (a small failure) and thus will eventually end up repeating the same mistake. In his article “10 Mistakes Smart People Never Make Twice,” Dr. Travis Bradberry outlines the differences between a “growth” mind-set and a “fixed” mind-set: “those with a growth mind-set land on their feet because they acknowledge their mistakes and use them to get better. Those with a fixed mind-set are bound to repeat their mistakes because they try their best to ignore them.”
Everyone struggles with this in the workplace– who wants to openly admit defeat? The problem in not acknowledging one’s shortcomings is that one cannot then brainstorm new or different approaches to achieve the desired outcome. Whether you’re a temp, a manager, or the president of a Fortune 500 company, it will do you well to realize that you cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to get a different result. If something doesn’t work, that’s just one more thing you can cross off the list on your path to discover something that does.
In the words of Albert Einstein, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Don’t be insane! No matter how many times you try, 2 + 2 will never equal 5. Embrace your mistakes, learn from them, and apply this new knowledge to future endeavors.
Photo: retrieved from Pixabay, available under the public domain.