Why Making Mistakes Are Good For You

Earlier this month I went to see the latest extravaganza from the amazing performers of Cirque Du Soleil. If you've seen any of their shows yourself you'll know how many jaw dropping feats they perform, leaving the audience open-mouthed in amazement. 

I saw the show OVO which is based around a giant egg and an insect theme. The story-telling showcased a variety of performers all dressed as bugs. They spun giant fruit in the air with their feet and leaped, dived and crawled around a climbing wall with the help of a trampoline. There were contortionists,  a juggler, a highwire walker, and of course the highlight was the flying trapeze act. 

All of these performers were completely inspiring with their talents and skills and it's clear how many hours of training goes into the show and each performance. But what stood out for me was not so much their amazing feats as the times the performers missed. The juggler dropped his spinning tops once or twice, the aerial performers occasionally overshot their mid-air flips and landed awkwardly, and on a couple of occasions the trapeze artists missed their catcher and plunged into the net below.

The response to all these 'mistakes' was huge applause and the performers involved simply got back up and did it again. No-one was phased by these incidents, neither the performers nor the audience. In fact there was probably more applause at these times. The audience wanted to urge the performers on and the performers didn't stop to dwell on it, instead focusing on their jumping, spinning, whirling and flipping routines without pause. 

Far from ruining the show, these incidents seemed to enhance it. It reminded the audience that we're all human and fallible. People gasped but quickly relaxed when they realised it was ok, the performer wasn't hurt or even bothered. This is a useful metaphor for life in general. I heard a saying recently that said 'if you're not failing, you're probably not succeeding either'. These performers who do amazing things with their bodies probably 'fail' a lot more often than the average person, but that's the price they willingly pay for the amazing successes they achieve. 

 

They can do these amazing things because they train endlessly to reach such levels of competence, and how many times on their way to the top do they drop things, fall over, miss their mark and fall in a heap?  Each of these times teaches them something they can incorporate into their next attempt, lessons they could never learn otherwise. Rather than deciding 'oh I must not be meant to do this for a living', they use each mistake as information to grow and learn from.

If they were to focus only on their failures they would surely give up and go home. But their success far outweighs their failures and that's what keeps them going, despite all the long hours and aching muscles. For most of us, our successes also outweigh our failures, and our errors teach us how to succeed. We need to notice this and give ourselves permission not to get things right immediately.

We can do this by reminding ourselves what Clarissa Pinkola Estés once wrote, that “failure is a greater teacher than success”.

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I'm very grateful to Tia for offering me the opportunity to write for her beautiful website.

 

Leanne Chapman is a qualified psychologist and life coach who runs Claim Your Treasure, a place to  discover your truth and create a life that makes sense.  Leanne uses creative processes involving art, writing, nature and even animals to help you uncover the true story of you. You can find learn more at http://claimyourtreasure.com.

Photos courtesy of Cirque du Soleil