Road To Success: Learn From Your Mistakes

The road to success is never straight. The textbook definition of “straight” is something that has no bends, angles or curves. Can we apply that same definition to life? Absolutely not. There really isn’t such thing as “straight” in the universe. At the core of everything, including us, is energy. Energy doesn’t travel straight, it travels in waves. Imagine throwing a pebble into a lake, watching the ripples gliding across the surface.

Right after you throw your pebble, someone else also tosses a pebble in the same lake, and now the ripples from that pebble collide with the ripples from yours. That’s how everything in this universe works.

Take Control: Create Your Road To Success

People and events are constantly colliding. This creates new pathways, situations, and actions. The chaos of life makes it almost impossible for anyone to always go “straight” to where they planned.
Some people thrive on chaos and change, but most people don’t. They get frustrated, down, and ready to throw in the towel because they usually have expectations, and these expectations are usually almost impossible to meet.

We might as well just accept it: the road to success comes with twists, turns, ups, downs, stops and reverses. Once we really understand and accept this, we’re less likely to be deluded into having unrealistic expectations that there’s a straight line to the top. So when we come across bumps, flat tires, and raised bridges along the way, we won’t be so quick to get upset or give up. Getting off track is normal and therefore “perfect”.

The Ideal of Success and Perfectionism

You have to expect to spend a great deal of time making mistakes, or if it sounds better “making corrections”, on your road to success. There’s a reason why perfectionists have a hard time being highly successful. Perfectionism is a form of fear, based on fear of failure or the fear of disapproval.
If perfectionists don’t get it exactly right, then they don’t have to finish, follow through, and move on. They get to stay stuck “until it’s right”, but of course it’ll never be right. Perfectionists will never have to face the possibility of rejection or disappointment.

We need to consider mistakes as “feedback” rather than something to be avoided at all costs. Mistakes are our perfectly natural learning curve. They are the feedback we need to get ourselves back on track.

Take Action

We can do the same thing we already know we need to do in order to keep moving forward: Take action!

Those actions will produce results, and sometimes more mistakes. Then we just get that feedback, use it to correct our course again, and take more action. This is the non-linear cycle toward success. As long as you use this cycle , and persevere, it’s virtually impossible to fail.

Remember, we’re all ripples in the lake of the universe. You never know how a comment, observation, or shared experience can change the course of your life or another person’s life!

Exercise: Your Road to Success

1. What are your stories about the ‘bumpy’ road to success? What unexpected events – totally beyond your control – have happened to you?
2. How did you react? Did it set you back or help you move forward with new and better actions?
3. How did you deal with the setbacks or successes?

Share your experience with us in the comments!

For Your Freedom,

For most people, the inevitable setbacks on the road to success can result in a lack of confidence and low self esteem, but it doesn’t have to be this way. So to help prevent this from happening to you, I created a free e-book called MindFrick, “Master The Inner World To Succeed In The Outer World”, that I’d like to give to you for free. Click here to download it now.

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