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Published by Rachelle Disbennett-Lee
Friday, February 22, 2002
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Basketball
players have a ritual. Whenever they make a bad play, they
yell out, "My bad." By owning responsibility for
the bad play, the player's teammates usually do not hold
on to the need to blame. Since the player that made the
error claims the mistake, his teammates do not have anything
to argue against and simply go on with the game.
In
life, we can get ourselves in trouble by not claiming our
mistakes. By not excepting responsibility for the mistake,
we miss the opportunity to learn from the situation and
thus are likely to repeat the same mistake. Ownership of
our part in the mistake allows us the opportunity to acknowledge
what we did to cause the mishap and thus act in preventing
it from happening again.
Making
a mistake is not bad, not learning from it is. If we refuse
to admit or acknowledge our part in the situation, we in
turn refuse to learn from it. Mistakes can be invaluable
if we learn from them and use that knowledge to prevent
the same mistake from being repeated. According to Robert
J. Kriegel, author of "How to Success in Business Without
Working so Damn Hard: Rethinking the Rules, Reinventing
the Game," 'Many people keep failing because they fail
to take responsibility for their mistakes and thus never
learn what really caused them.'
Coaching
Mistakes
will happen and they will happen repeatedly until we learn
the lessons there. If we refuse responsibility, we refuse
the lesson. We will find ourselves in a downward spiral
of mistakes. It would be wise to realize that, in all situations
that occur in our lives, there is only one common denominator.
Yes. You guessed it. You! Figure out what part you are playing.
Yell out, "My bad," and move on. Until you except
responsibility, you will be trapped by your unwillingness
to break the cycle.
Practice
today calling, "My bad," and see if it makes a
difference in how you feel and how fast you can move on
from a mistake.
Where
in your life are you refusing to accept responsibility for
what is happening to you?
Daily
Success Formula
"My
bad" = Accepting responsibility + Moving on
Quotes
"Mistakes
are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom."
Phyllis Theroux
"Mistakes
are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts."
Nikki Giovanni
"It
isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them
and getting on with the principal task." Donald Rumsfeld
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