Are You Sure Your Mistake Is A Mistake?

© Global Relationship Centers, Inc. 2007
Founder, Global Relationship Centers, Inc.
Are you having difficulty enjoying the moment because you are feeling that you have failed atnsomething?
Here is a story that can help you deal with failure:
On October 9, 1989, the Chicago Cubs baseball team was playing the San Francisco Giants to determine which team would go forward to compete in the World Series. It was a verynclose game. Going into the last half of the 8th inning, the score was tied one to one. Then the Giants scored two runs putting them into the lead. In the ninth inning, the Chicago Cubsnscored a run and were in position to regain the lead but then several players made mistakes and they lost the game by a score of three to two. Their hopes of playing in the World Seriesnvanished.

Can you imagine how the players on the Chicago Cubs team felt? A few years ago, one of our staff members called the Cubs' main office to ask if there was one particular player who theynfelt was responsible for the loss. They said that it was not any one player but that the entire team had played sloppy and they were all responsible for the loss. They did not feel goodnabout themselves. How would you feel? Would you feel like a failure? Were they a failure? No! In fact they were actually heroes, but they did not recognize it because they were sonfocused on accomplishing what they felt was the objective that that they overlooked the big picture. You see, because the Cubs lost, the San Francisco Giants went on to play the Oakland A's in the World Series. That created a situation where both teams playing in the Series were from the San Francisco area. On October 17th, 1989 the two San Francisco teams were about to play each other in Candlestick Park. Excitement abounded in Sa

Francisco as fans of both teams were either crowded into the stadium or at home, glued to their TV sets. Because of this, there was hardly any traffic on the Nimitz Freeway. Then, at
5:05 PM Pacific Time, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the San Francisco area. The double-deck Nimitz Freeway collapsed, crushing cars below to a thickness of five inches.

Normally, at that time of day the traffic along that stretch of highway is bumper-to-bumper. However, because both teams were from San Francisco and there were so many people atnthe game or at home watching TV the traffic was sparse. Instead of killing thousands of people there were only 62 fatalities.
By losing a ballgame, the Chicago Cubs were not failures. They were, in fact, heroes who saved thousands of lives.
What about you? Are you sure your mistake is really a mistake? Look at the bigger picture. If you are focused on being helpful instead of being focused on proving your personal greatness, you may see that all things have a wonderful purpose. It is only our investment in proving ourselves that has a discouraging effect.