Owning Your Mistakes

I hate to make mistakes.

OK.  Maybe it has less to do with actually making the mistakes, and more to do with letting other people down, or making them look bad.

Yesterday was one of those days… I missed a pretty important meeting because of an email I had missed (while on vacation - an honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless).

The specific ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of my unfortunate blunder are not what I want to focus on here, but more so the opportunities that are often birthed out of such mistakes.

The reality is that if we’re doing anything that involves other people, attempting to do more than one thing at a time, are anything less than meticulous when it comes to every last detail, or if we’re simply something less than a perfect person, than  we are bound to make mistakes… and ultimately, let other people down.

So what do you do?  How do you respond?

1. As I see it I had three options yesterday:Ignore it and hope that it would go unnoticed,
2. Quickly attempt to ‘pass the buck’ by coming up with a story about how this was not my fault, or
3. Own it

I’m not the kind of person that likes to have things weighing on me for very long… and I think the first 2 options would have left me weighed down and waiting for the proverbial ‘other shoe’ to drop.  So I owned it.

It required contacting the President’s assistant (which means it may ultimately get back to the president) and my boss.  I wasn’t sure how ‘coming clean’ would be received, and I still don’t know for certain, but I do know that I feel a lot better about the whole situation.

I may have some ramifications to deal with (some relationships to mend, some trust levels to restore, some pride to swallow, etc.), but I know that in the long run it will serve to make me a better person – hopefully someone who more resembles, and even exemplifies, what it means to be a Christ-follower.

An opportunity for growth arises from the embarrassment of a mistake.  Not how I would have desired to experience growth, but one that I will now choose to step in to.

How about you?

• How do you deal with mistakes you make?
• How much of your reaction is based on whom your mistake impacted (ie. – those you lead, peers, those who lead you)?
• What does it mean to be a Christian, a ministry leader, who ‘owns’ his/her own mistakes?

Hope you’ll share your insights and stories in the comments section below!