Today’s MAWMonday Motivators is focused on two words: Mistakes and Recovery. I had an inspired conversation last week with a person who is in recovery. We talked about the mindset, the process, and the pressures that lead to relapse–the mistakes along the recovery path. We both agreed on a lesson for every aspect of life. Mistakes should be mistakes, not denial and self-deception that end in disaster. And even if you experience a mistake, don’t see it as a dead end. Perceive a path of recovery. For you, it could be a financial recovery, a relationship recovery, a confidence recovery, health recovery, or a faith recovery. Whatever the path, steer clear of the potholes more carefully. In that vein, I present 5 truths that twitter spoke to me with as motivation for this Monday.
1. Mistakes Occur
You can’t take it back after it’s done. But, the lesson in that is to do what you do on purpose. Yet, this tweet reminds you that the recovery path has potholes, detours, and hills that feel like mountains. You may have been intentional, but it didn’t work out like you intended. You can’t go backward, but you can move forward again…intentionally.
RT #CantRecover @RespectYourself pic.twitter.com/1PGHXWSJL3
— Rae (@MsTerionam) April 22, 2015
2. The Future Has More Opportunities
I am often found stating that I am perfect. This tweet helps me explain what I mean. My action is considered and intentional, but I don’t control how it is interpreted. I may be unaware or ignorant of new information that suggests a different action. In that context, I make mistakes just like everyone else. Your perfection is not in any fantasy of infallibility or omniscience. Your perfection is in your determination to continue on the path. One wrong answer, one mistake is not game over. It’s not a game. It’s a path.
We all make mistakes. Admit it and don't let a wrong decision control your future.
— Donnetta Stickles (@Donnettacaw) April 22, 2015
3. Learning Translates Mistakes into Lessons
The only problem with life is that the lessons sometimes provide you with information that you do not want to hear. It’s not that you were in denial. It’s just that you had a hope that justice, wisdom, and favor would be granted to you rather than politics, contests, and tradition. Yet, even in these instances, you learn that some people, some environments, some times are only seasons along the path. Those seasons end reminding you to continue your learning, your growth on the path.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford #quote #success
— Amy Morin, LCSW (@AmyMorinLCSW) April 22, 2015
4. Investing to Change is Evidence of Progress
If it hurts, its a reminder that you care. After being intentional, vulnerable, and openness ends with disappointment, it’s natural to consider drastic change. Change may be warranted. But, you have been considered and intentional along the path. Continue in that vein. Drastic, sporadic, desperate usually ends with regret and more mistakes. Careful action does not diminish your caring, just as drastic action does not prove your caring.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." – Dr. Seuss
— Bruce Van Horn (@BruceVH) April 22, 2015
5. Continue Decisively
You have heard it before. Hopefully, you have heard it in more places than this blog. Fear is the greatest barrier to your success. It is the toughest obstacle you will face on your path. It will continue to crop up. But, just as it crops up, mow it down. You do that with decision making. Notice I didn’t say right decisions. You make decisions. You make them intentionally. Decisiveness is the machete you wield to expand your path or create a new path.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
— Qiana Washington (@laipd1995) February 26, 2015
