How To Use Mistakes To Supercharge Your Learning

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Transcription:

Hi I am Abe Stone, a life design coach at coachingreallyworks.com

Today, I want to talk about failure, not just failure like “Oh, be okay with failure” or “Accept it. You’re gonna learn or find some good in it.” but to really see how we can learn and how we can grow through failure and make failure our friend.

So first I want to start out with a little story, as you know that I am pretty new with these videos. I started making these, I think it has been about a month now. When I first started, I needed to know how to dress  what kind of clothes to wear, you know figure out what is the best presentation that I can offer. So I got some tips, I looked for them on YouTube and I was really happy because there were a few safeguards that I found out about and got to know.

So I went ahead, did my first video and I continued and I got my next videos going. I am not sure which one it was but I think it was the 3rd video, it might have been the 3rd. If you go back and look you’ll see there is one video where I made two mistakes in one video in dress code.

The Mistake

One of them is, you’re not supposed to wear black because it absorbs the light, it tends just to kind of not look very good or presentable in video situations.

The other one is stripes,  not to wear fine stripes because stripes distort on video, they don’t look good and are hard for some screens to render. Sure enough on that video I did both, I had the stripes, and it was a black shirt with white stripes.

So what do you do? “Oh my goodness. I failed, I messed up.”  Yeah, I was tempted to go back and maybe redo the video but then I thought that this is a great learning experience, I am learning and it is a learning that I can share with other people.

Now you see from looking at the rest of the videos that followed, I did not make same mistake again and that is the thing about learning that we need to focus on, particularly how to use failure to move us forward, to take us to the next level.

The Learning Process

So the idea is that it looks something like this.

First, get the information that you need, you want to be able to make the right decision, you want to be able to move forward with confidence but without the need to be so worried that you are going to fail.

So you got the information you move forward, it my case I failed to apply the information forward, I made a mistake. Well, the learning that I got from that and the assessment of that really helped me.

The next step is, okay, let us take it back to the beginning,

1. We have information.
2. We make the decision on how we are going to apply the information, how we are going to use it so that it becomes a part of our life or a part of what we are doing.
3. Then we do it, we take action.

Where Mistakes Fit In

So we have that  feedback loop that follows after the doing. We have a mistake, like I had, and that is the time we catch it, we make adjustments, we make changes, and the learning is stronger. So then the information is much more grounded. It’s a part of you.

Then you repeat the process all over again, you make a decision, you move forward. I had to pick the next shirt, I had to continue with the videos. I’m doing it and the action is happening.

Now I am looking at feed back on other aspects. Aspects like how I am talking or things that I have to do with the lighting or different areas that I can adjust and continue to work on and that is how the learning cycle continues to go for many of us.

The challenge is not to let fear of failure or worry that you  are going to fail stop you from going forward, making the best decision, you can taking the best action you can, and when you fail, learn from it, get up, move on, and try again. Continue to learn and grow.

Here is a funny quote that I would like to share with you, its from Woody Allen.

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative”

Woody Allen

Well that is something to think about when you see that, “Everything is going good. I’m not making any kind of mistakes. I’m kinda holding it together.”  Maybe you need to stretch out a little bit more, do something you’re not comfortable with and learn through the failures and mistakes that you make.

And the affirmation for this week is going to be:

Today I am willing to face the possibility of failure in order to succeed.”

This is Abe Stone at coachingreallyworks.com