Three Mistakes Too Often Made

1.  Believing that mistakes are always to be avoided

The reason people try to avoid mistakes is that they feel they are a sign of failure and weakness - but mistakes are learning experiences.  We can probably learn more from our mistakes if we not too busy denying them. Fear of making mistakes have kept many people rising from the top.  When you make a mistake, you can resolve never to make another one - but that's an impossible resolution.  You can decide that mistakes are too costly and become fearful of them but that fear will keep you from fulfilling your potential. You can constantly think about your mistakes and live with the regret - but that's self-torture.  You can learn from your mistakes and become a better person, and that's progress.

2.  Thinking that success comes naturally to those who are the most brilliant and talented.

History has proven that people are successful not because of brilliant but because of persistence and desire.  A young man who was learning how to become a trapeze artist heard some excellent advise from his teacher who said "Throw your heart over the bars and your body will follow" No matter what field of endeavour we're pursuing, those of us who throw in our hearts into our work will know success.  The degree of success you achieve depends upon the amount of sincere desire you possess. Successful people have a dream that becomes too exciting, too important to remain in the realm of fantasy - their dream becomes a burning desire.  Persistence is needed for one to be an achiever. Success is never instantaneous. It's never an accident. Success is continuous. The true measure of success is not what position you've reached in life, but what obstacles you have overcome to reach the desired goal. Obstacles are overcome by persistence.

3.  Refusing to change when there's a need to change.

It's so easy to sit in a rut and let the world pass us by after we've raised our objections to all changes. We should take out our negative, closed mind every once in a while and stomp on it to get all the cogs out. What's truly sad about those who won't change is that there can be no improvement except through change.  To keep changing is not an end in itself, but only through change can there be true growth. People resist change because they are insecure. People resist change because it takes energy to do something different. Exchanging ideas, planning, rearranging priorities, and setting new goals are activities that take time and effort.  It's always easier to stay in the same rut, but it's not always right and best. Every growing organism grows to maturity, levels off, and dies unless there's new life, new blood, new activity, and new ideas.  In other words, we die unless we continue to grow.  We grow only when we change