Use mistakes to build yourself up..!
Robert Clements
I’d like to share a story with you today: It’s about a famous research
scientist who’d made several very important medical breakthroughs, and
was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter:
“Why are you more creative than the average person?” he was asked.
The famous man smiled, “It all came from an experience I had with my
mother when I was two years old!”
“I was trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when I
lost my grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents
all over the kitchen floor - a veritable sea of milk!”
“When my mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at me, giving
me a lecture or punishing me, she said, ‘Son, what a great and wonderful
mess you’ve made! I’ve never seen such a huge puddle of milk!”
“I stared at my mother stunned as she continued, “Well son, the damage
has been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few
minutes before we clean up?”
“And that’s what I did!”
“After a few minutes, my mother said, ‘You know, son, whenever you make
a mess like this, finally we all have to clean up and restore everything
to its proper order. So, how would you like to help me do that? Lets use
a sponge, a towel, or a mop. What do you prefer?’
“I chose the sponge and together we cleaned the spilled milk!”
“Then my mother said, “What happened was a failed experiment in how to
carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go to the back yard,
fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it
without dropping it!”
Says the famous scientist, “I did just that and learned that if I held
the bottle at the top near the neck with both hands, I could carry it
without dropping it!”
“That was the moment I knew I didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes.
Instead, I learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning
something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all
about. Even if the experiment ‘doesn’t work,’ we usually learn something
valuable from it don’t we?”
Wouldn’t it be great if all parents respond the way his mother responded
to him?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all respond to people who we manage
in a similar manner too; help someone learn from his or her mistakes?
That man’s mother helped build him up to be a great man by helping him
to learn from a mistake he’d made.
Are you one who makes a lot of mistakes? Or do you have a child who
does? Whatever, start building on those mistakes and change your life..!
Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com |
