Only Human

That famous non-entity Anonymous once said, ‘the only time you should look back is to see how far you’ve come.’  So tell me, how did last year go for you?

 

If experience is truly the best teacher then we can all agree that regardless of whether we ended the year in the black or in the red, we’re smarter today than we were a year ago. What have you learned from your 2013 experience that you’re resolved to do differently going forward?

 

Are you where you thought you would be? What are you proud of and what could you have done differently? Did you make any mistakes? How many?  The more the merrier.  Mistakes are healthy.  They’re proof that we’re human. If you look at your mistakes as achievements, how would you fare? Be honest.

 

Did you exceed your expectations?  (Made more mistakes than you thought you would)

Did you meet your expectations?     (Made as many mistakes as you thought you would)

Did you fall below your expectations? (Made a few mistakes)

Did you fail miserably? (Made no mistakes)

 

 

If you’ve made lots of mistakes and learned from them, you’ve earned your wings. It means you’re not afraid to try to test the waters, change the status quo , your comfort level, and your world. It’s healthy.  You’re doing something.

 

If you’ve made no mistakes, you’ll need to go back to 2013 and look again.

 

Zig Ziglar once said ‘You may have made some mistakes and you may not be where you want to be, but that’s got nothing to do with your future.’ Since experiences are oftentimes the result of what we learned by risking and making mistakes, I’m sure we’ve learned a lot over this past year.  But bear in mind we won’t always be able to call on experience to help us. No doubt this year will bring yet more opportunities to make yet more mistakes.  Bring them on. As lifelong learners we can tackle anything and succeed. The only way we can fail is if we don’t try.