Not long ago, I had a gruesome accident involving potatoes, a kitchen mandolin, and me trying to move too quickly. In an instant, my finger slipped, hit the razor thin blade, and the the tip of my thumb was removed and left resting on top of the sliced potatoes. I swore, not because it hurt, but because I knew how incredibly stupid, foolish, and embarrassing a mistake I had just made.
I spent the next 2 hours with my hand elevated, googling how to get the bleeding to stop. I found many others had experienced the same mishap and, while many cursed the mandolin and its creator, there were some practical suggestions. The best was: wear a cut glove when using a mandolin so if the safety device fails, you won’t suffer loss of digits.
Over the next several weeks, as people saw the bandages and asked what happened, I became eager to share my silly mistake and what I had learned. I wanted others to avoid pain and wear a cut glove. I wanted them to learn from my embarrassing mistake.
Which got me to thinking… how many mistakes have I made where the consequences aren’t obvious and I don’t share them with anyone because they might be embarrassing.
I’m sure you can relate. Chances are, however, people would appreciate hearing about them, learning from them, and then feel brave enough to share their own mistakes.
Below you’ll find some good articles on overcoming mistakes, which is good and necessary work. I encourage you to share your lessons learned with others. You may just find you have a lot more to offer the world because of your mistakes, not in spite of them.
Some articles for further reading
- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dont-fear-failure-9-powerful-lessons-we-can-learn-from-our-mistakes_b_6058380
- https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/5-ways-to-help-yourself-get-over-a-big-mistake.html
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/karineldor/2017/10/31/haunted-by-career-mistakes-4-ways-to-overcome-them
Thank you for reading and feedback is welcome and encouraged