Last week, I was listening to some great people talk about ‘mindset’. How important it is…. to have the right mindset.
Our brains are programmed in such a way, it can be difficult… or take time to re-programme them. Because our influences… years of thinking in such a way… programme the brain in such a way.
But if you can realise you’re programmed in such a way… you can re-programme. Just like a computer. Just like how you update your mobile phone. You need to update your thinking.
I saw this, and thought it was very powerful…
So what is the difference between failing and being a failure? It comes down to you mindset.
You have to think differently when you are failing.
Easier said than done.
You’ll go through the change curve. However, it’s how you understand the problem. Understand the failure…. let it be clear it’s an event… one moment in time, most importantly… an opportunity to learn from.
I’ve done plenty of things in my life – at the time, my mind said… i’m a failure. But quickly… as time passes… I realise, it was just a moment.
For example… I was at Kodak, and I was on a project. We had to bring a new manufacturing line, that wrapped boxes from Bologna, Italy. My job was to ship some samples over to the factory to make sure we could test it in Italy, before it got shipped over.
So, I did as I was told… got some samples, shipped them over, with the correct address, marked for my attention. I even rang the factory, told them these samples are coming and to leave them to one side… they said sure (in Italian).
We got there… and this was my first work trip abroad.
Got to the factory… all excited… my boss asks, where’s the samples? – i’ll get them. I ask the factory manager, bring the samples over. He says, what samples?
At that moment… time stood still.
“The ones I told you about.. that were arriving”….. he stood there looking at me. “Oh, we didn’t receive any”. To my amazement… “what?! – and you didn’t tell me?!”
So at this point, i’m stood, in Italy, with my boss, on my first work trip, first major project… and I’ve failed. I’m a Failure.
I explained it to my boss… he was a really nice guy. He said, let’s figure this out… let’s trace them and where they could be.
Which we did, they were held at the local postal sorting office… needed a signature. So we sent someone, got it signed and in the afternoon, the samples were with us.
I learnt a couple of valuable lessons.
Believe you me… never have I let that same mistake occur again.
So.. remember about your mindset. How you’re thinking…
We’ll always make mistakes. But the key thing is to learn from them. It’s a temporary moment in life.