You know those times when you have such a brilliant insight or you see things in a new way or your mind is expanded to a new way of thought? Those moments are impactful, inspiring, and intellectually stimulating.
We marvel at how wonderful it feels to learn something new, like a light has just been turned on, we’ve gotten a jolt of energy, and we are motivated to do something spectacular.
They are some of the brightest moments of our day. So much so, that we have given them a name: the “aha moment.”
What a great name, right? AHA! I hadn’t seen that before. Aha! I know a better way. Aha! My life is so much richer now.
The aha moment is a wondrous thing indeed.
Now let’s take a look at another type of moment in our lives. This is a moment where we suddenly realize, we are not quite as good as we thought we were. We try something new and we fail. We are working with a client and we come up short. We think we know the answer, but it is wrong.
These moments kind of suck. And we tend to beat ourselves up about them. We consider ourselves less than adequate, or a failure, or just plain stupid.
But why do we go to the extreme and chastise ourselves that way? We would never do that with a friend or a loved one, and yet we do it to ourselves all the time.
We need to find a better way to deal with challenges and setbacks.
We need to see that these moments are learning opportunities.
We need to understand that these moments are just as fruitful as the aha moment.
But only if we show up with an attitude striving for growth and improvement.
I like to call these moments, “haha moments” because we need to be able to laugh at ourselves when things don’t go just right.
We can always go back and discern how we could have done something better or said something smarter, but in the moment, we need to have a little laugh at our own expense.
I know this might sound crazy, but if we start to reframe our mistakes, missteps, and misunderstandings as happy accidents, then we can start to be a little kinder to ourselves and learn to embrace all moments as opportunities for growth, development, and continuous improvement.
It just takes one smile to go from devastating failure to empowering success.
You see, we always have the choice to either beat ourselves up or build ourselves up.
Next time you make a mistake, smile knowing you are about to build a new insight, a new bridge to learning, a new pearl of wisdom to guide you next time you are in a similar situation.
Celebrate the moment, celebrate the learning, and celebrate your awesome ability to turn your “haha moments” directly into “aha moments!”
Your Mindful Moment:
Laugh at your gaffe and then yearn that you’ve learned.
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