People are often stuck in their mistakes. Why? Because freedom to move beyond a mistake takes an action that is often difficult but extremely rewarding.

Own it. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself this year. Often times people don’t want to own their mistakes for fear of judgement, embarrassment or rejection.  The problem with this is you can attempt to label your mistake something else but it will follow hard after you. Every where you go, there it is! It’s better to own up to it and then move beyond it.

Recently, many of us saw or heard of the mistake Steve Harvey made at the Miss Universe. When I heard about it on the news, and saw comments on social media both for and against Steve, I took to the Internet to find a video to see what happened. As I viewed the video clipping I felt bad for Steve and for both of the women involved.  What most stood out to me is that Steve didn’t try to walk away and let someone else handle it, nor did he make excuses or publicly place blame on others. In fact, he apologized. He owned his mistake. Even if there may be other underlying reasons for why this mistake happened the fact remains Steve owned it himself and for that I commend and applaud him.   It’s not easy to stand before a televised audience and make the mistake that he did and then to apologize.  Most of us won’t have very public mistakes made however, we all make them and we must own them when we do.

Below are four benefits to owning your mistakes:

1. Taking immediate responsibility speaks to maturity, character, integrity.
2. Immediately apologizing allows people to trust you again. Trust is a foundation that you never want broken. Trust is never just given it is usually earned and once broken it is not easy to regain but when we apologize swiftly and genuinely it immediately opens the door for the rebuilding of trust.
3. It helps you to be more aware of yourself. If we’re honest we don’t grow as much from our successes as we do from our mistakes.  If we are quick to own the mistake we will be open to see and embrace and lesson(s).
4. It leaves the right legacy.  Whether we realize it or not, people are always watching to see what you are saying and doing.  I’d rather be known as someone who owned my mistakes then someone who passed the buck or placed blame on others. We are not only impacting each other with our behavior, but even more we are teaching the next generations how to behave.

Don’t be afraid to own your mistakes. It will move you forward.  What have you learned from owning your mistakes? What have you learned that you can pass on to others who face similar situations?

Warmest regards,

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