Oops!

Everyone makes mistakes. It's part of life. Many of our most important discoveries and inventions were born from a mistake...so why is it we are so upset when we make one? It seems to me we spend far more time on excuses and berating ourselves than on fixing the mistake itself.

So lets pretend every mistake has value. Maybe it's true... penicillin, electricity, X-rays...Post It Notes... :-). So lets pretend every mistake has value...and we have to look for the value in every mistake. Mistakes would become good things instead of something to be embarrassed or angry about. There would be no need for excuses, no explanations, just evaluation. How cool would that be? Imagine if parents, bosses, teachers, looked at every mistake made as an opportunity to learn something new or find a better way... I think the world would literally be a better place. Maybe there are hundreds, thousands, millions of discoveries out there that could have been discovered if we weren't so busy making excuses for the mistake...the mistake that could have lead to something great!

So next time you or someone around you makes a mistake...before the excuses, before the anger...stop a moment and look for the value. I would hate for you to miss it.