Admitting the obvious builds trust
Two Amazing Facts Come to Light When We Admit Our Mistakes
How long does it take you to admit a mistake, a minute, hours, weeks, or never?
I’m older now than I’ve ever been. I’ll turn eighty in 2022, which caused me to think, how good have I been in admitting my mistakes. Let’s talk about it.
We make choices in life; then, our choices make who we become. One option is to become more human. Some people tend to think of themselves as infallible. In other words, these people never have admitted to making a mistake. Or, they believe others who heard or saw their miscues will not notice. Think again.
So, let’s get right to these two amazing facts that pop up when we admit our mistakes.
- When we admit we made a mistake, it frees our mind of the nagging notion of how to cover for our miscue.
2. Admitting our mistake(s) to others builds their trust in us.
Let’s look at how admitting our mistakes frees our mind
When we do not take the trash out of our house for the trash-man to pick up, what happens? Our house has become cluttered with more debris than we can handle. The same is true in our heads. Our minds can only take so much of the trashy mistakes we harbor. Then, in our mind confusion reigns, instead of peace.
Two things tend to stop us from admitting a mistake we made.
- Our ego. I’m not faultless, and neither are you. Look at it this way; mistakes can make you or break you. A mistake here or there can be a teaching moment.
- We have a misconception of what it means to be a leader. Leaders do make mistakes. The only leader who never made a mistake was Jesus Christ, and you’re not him and neither am I.
So, it pays to admit our mistakes to give room in our minds for good thoughts.
When we don’t take the opportunity to admit where we mess up is especially true for us older retirees. We’re running out of time to make amends. So, there’s no better time than the present to ask forgiveness for the mistakes we’ve made. Be thankful we have this time to say what we ought to say to those we love.
Here are five ways to admit your mistake.
The second fact of admitting mistakes, it builds trust
We build a sense of camaraderie among those we are in a relationship with when we admit a mistake we made.
The truth is most people pick up on when you make a mistake. You said something untrue. Or you acted stupidly when the time demanded something else. I admit I’ve done both. The truth is I didn’t always own up to my mistake; I’m sad to say. But, you know, when I did admit my mistake to those affected, they greeted me with smiles of acceptance.
In Reina Trust Building, Michelle Reina writes that we build trust in others, one mistake at a time.
Here’s what Keith Boyer and Matt Riley wrote in the Psychology and The Art of Persuasion Box Set:
“If you make a mistake, be big enough to admit to the mistake. People will think much better if you make an admission after a mistake.”
The facts are when we admit we made a blunder to our spouse or children it builds trust in our family. The same is true in the workplace and even among our friends.
Here’s my takeaways:
- Admit your mistake(s) and free your mind for good thoughts
- We all make mistakes, own them, admit them to build trust with others.
Here’s some homework for us to do this week. Let’s take out the trash. We’ll do this by admitting the mistakes that have affected our relationships.
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. John C. Maxwell is a number one New York Times bestselling author, coach and speaker.
Thank you for reading to the very end, doesn’t always happen, but when it does, I’m one happy man.
Richard
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