“Our bravest lessons are not learned through success, but misadventure.” - Amos Bronson Alcott
When we have to make a move but are insecure and uncertain, we sometimes substitute direction from a reliable source for the “correct” answer rather than trusting our gut to show us the right path and the mistakes it will take to get us there.
Fear of failure opens the door to inertia. In trying to avoid that, we often cave and consult an “expert.” However, allowing someone else to give you direction and then taking that direction does not absolve you from owning responsibility for choosing to follow bad advice nor give you permission to blame that source for your action. When you are in doubt and someone offers you advice at your request, consider the source.
If you consult a novice just to hear the wind blow and affirm your predetermined course of action and then say you got a second opinion, at lease one person knows exactly what you did. And when the time comes, that person will stand alone to face the consequences. When you consult a professional whose background and ethics are the polar opposite of yours and then question why their perfect advice failed, you are way off track.
Bottom line. What goes around comes around. Get in the game and try your hand at making decisions. Good, bad, or indifferent, you gain experience making decisions and accepting responsibility. Eventually, your confidence will improve as you learn what decisions you are best at making or delegating and what decisions you really can’t handle.
Allow as much trust in your need to make mistakes as in your need to get it right. Perfection is a wonderful result. We stand back in awe and admiration - but there is very little grist for the mill in terms of learning how it was done; whereas, mistakes can be a valuable tool for evolution. And some mistakes offer life lessons for generations.
Eventually, mistakes force someone to get it right.
P.S. - When you get good advice and act on it ... give credit.
Also posted on Talking to Nightlights -Wordpress Blog
