How to Capitalize on All Your Mistakes

You need to find the gifts in all your blunders

When I was 11, a friend and I decided to try and hack into a classmate’s email account.

It wasn’t for malicious purposes. It’s not like they had bank account details or legal documents in their inbox. We just wanted to look cool in front of our friends.

One day after class, we logged onto one of the school computers and Googled “How to find your friend’s Yahoo password”.

Excited that Google found results, we eagerly clicked on the first link — a site that promised us we could find anyone’s password. All we had to do was type in our own email and password and the email of the person we wanted to hack. They’d send us the person’s password within 24 hours!

A week later, I still hadn’t received an email with my friend’s password. My innocent little mind wondered why it was taking so long.

I decided to try again. But this time as I looked for the same website, I came across an article warning me not to give out my email and password details to anyone online. It was only then that it clicked. I’d been scammed.

To this day, I still remember that feeling. The realization that I’d been completely and utterly bamboozled.

Life hands you warning shots

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a close call. Not even a close call, but a taste of a situation that could have been a lot worse.

Handing out my email and password to a shady website when I was 11 doesn’t have nearly the same implications as it would for me today. I made a silly mistake as a kid that showed me how sneaky the world could be and taught me to be cautious online. Had I not learned that lesson early on, I may have fallen victim to a scam that cost me lots of money years later.

Life gives you many of these opportunities. Sure, sometimes you get into really bad situations. But for the most part, you’re given many chances to learn from mistakes without facing the full repercussions.

You need to pay attention to learn

Last year my wife and I went to an island overseas. Instead of taking the tour package like most people, we decided to save some money and asked one of the locals if they could take us for the tour at a discount price. He agreed.

But as we were being driven around, we started to notice a few things. A motorcycle started following our car. The driver started taking strange routes that deviated from the path the other tour guided vans were taking. He made random stops in the middle of nowhere and wouldn’t answer us when we asked him what was going on.

Luckily enough, he did take us to the places we wanted to go. But in those first moments where we realized we had gotten into a stranger’s car in a foreign land with no way to contact the outside world, we were frightened to our cores.

We didn’t know anything about the driver. He could have driven us anywhere, robbed, and beaten us and we wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.

It was silly of us. But we hadn’t considered any of this until things started to look fishy. As we sat at the back of the car, wondering if it would be our last day, we swore if we survived it that we’d never be so stupid again. We’d always play it safe. We’d pay for the safe tourist packages next time and be extra cautious when traveling.

Mistakes like these scar you so much that you don’t have to go out of your way to learn from them. You’re so shaken that any similar situations in the future automatically remind you what you shouldn’t do.

But some mistakes are much smaller. They’re almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things and aren’t noticed unless you are consciously dissecting them.

This is where it’s important to take time and reflect. Life is so on-the-go that you don’t have much time to stop and reflect unless you’re intentional about it. You overlook mistakes that if recognized, could help you make better, bigger decisions in the future.

For example, if you were to mistakingly leave the zipper of your bag open as you walk down the street, when you finally get to your location and notice it’s undone, you’d probably just zip it up and get on with life.

But if that mistake had resulted in your wallet and keys being stolen, you’d be extremely cautious moving forward, double-checking every time you leave the house, and maybe keeping your valuables in a more secure compartment.

In the initial example, nothing bad comes from your mistake. But that’s exactly the kind of mistake that is a gift. Reflecting on its implications could leave you better prepared for the future, without having to go through a nasty situation of having your stuff stolen.

Reflection and focus are your superpowers

It's impossible to zero-in on every single mistake you make. We’re human and we make plenty. But what you can do is set aside some time each day to reflect and go through your day.

We live in an attention-seeking world where everything and everyone demands we focus on them. But as hard as it may be, it’s important we take some time each day to look inward.

Of course, meditation is ideal. But if you find it difficult or don’t seem to have time in your day to sit down and reflect, try removing some noise and allowing your mind to think.

For example, as much as I try to meditate every day, I often feel too busy to find the time. So what helps me is avoiding the temptation to fill up all my time with noise.

I enjoy listening to podcasts when I drive. I listen to talks while I wash the dishes. And I often play music while I shower. But those are the small moments in the day when I feel it's necessary to turn off the noise. I just drive, shower, or do my chores in silence, giving my mind time to do its thing.

When I don’t have anything specific on my mind, I try to go through my day and reflect on what I did. I don’t even consciously try to spot the stuff I’ve done wrong. Naturally, things come to the front of my mind and get me thinking.

I find this helpful in learning from my daily activity. I think of ways I could have done things better and sometimes recognize mistakes I should have avoided. While many mistakes are forgotten when they’re not processed immediately, you can still recall a few. And the more often you take the time to reflect, the more you find.

Regular reflection also helps you build a habit of focus. You’re more conscious of things as they happen because your mind is trained to analyze and digest situations. And the more focused you are, the more you pick up in the moment.

In Summary

To capitalize on your mistakes you first need to recognize that every single mistake is an opportunity to learn and apply that learning to a future situation.

The best kind of mistake is one that’s small but carries a big lesson. Those are the gifts that help you learn without too much pain.

But to benefit from these mistakes you need to recognize them. Reflection helps you with this. The more time you give yourself to think and reflect on your day-to-day actions, the better you’ll be at spotting those areas for improvement.

And as you build a habit of reflection, you’ll naturally be more self-aware and focused on the present, allowing you to continuously learn and grow in everything you do.