Mistakes...

I've always thought this Demotivational Poster was funny

Everybody makes mistakes.  I made two of them within an hour of waking up this morning (and I'm not counting the fact that I had to wake up at 6:45 a.m. as a mistake!).  My mistakes were public and embarrassing.  I am disappointed in myself.  I've made these same mistakes before.  Why do they keep happening?

Even Michael Jordan Makes Mistakes on the Court:
Yesterday, my partner/colleague and I were driving home from a business meeting and he raised the topic of mistakes.  He coaches Little League Softball and was pondering the question of how to respond to mistakes in an effort to inspire his players to be better.

I love sports so I was sold.  And I started thinking about how we react to mistakes in sports.  First, this poster of the greatest basketball player of all time came to mind.

In what may have been one of the most heartbreaking games of all time, Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals on June 14, 1998, Michael Jordan did this:

Everyone remembers Michael Jordan hitting his last shot, but I wondered what the rest of the game looked like so I dug up the box score.  Jordan missed 20 shots in that game.  He also missed three free throws and he had a turnover.  Missing 20 shots is actually more shots than most players actually take during a game.

But the fact that he had missed 20 times did not deter MJ from taking that last shot.  And it went in.  To my chagrin and to the chagrin of all Jazz fans--it was like a dagger to the heart.

Mistakes in Life:
Unfortunately, some mistakes we make in life are more serious than missing a shot or shanking a putt.  When we make a mistake, we must realize it, correct it , and keep trying.  If we make the same mistake again, we need to repeat the process until we get it right.  We cannot allow ourselves to be defined by our mistakes.

I love this quote from President Teddy Roosevelt:

It’s not the critic who counts,

not the man who points out

how the strong man stumbles

or where the doer of deeds

could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man

who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred

by dust and sweat and blood,

who strives valiantly,

who errs and comes short

again and again because

there is no effort without

error and shortcomings,

who knows the great devotion,

who spends himself in a worthy cause,

who at best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph

and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly,

knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls

who know neither victory nor defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt

There is nobility to "strive valiantly" and to keep trying even when we fall short.  The adversary would have us give up when we make a mistake.  But the only sure way to fail is to stop trying.  Some mistakes may be harder to overcome because of the nature of the mistake, but I believe that we can and will overcome them.  Especially with the help of the Savior.

This Easter season, we celebrate the Atonement.  Some mistakes that we make are so serious that we may need to take advantage of "this cool little thing called repentance."  Thanks to Christ's Atonement, we have that option.

We all make mistakes in life.  The Savior knows this and loves us anyway--in spite of our imperfections, not because of them.  I love the Prophet Moroni's closing counsel to the world about how Christ can help us overcome our imperfections:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

Moroni 10:32

It's comforting to know that I don't need to overcome my many mistakes on my own.  But I have faith that I can overcome them with the help of the Savior.

So even though I made those mistakes this morning, I'm not going to quit.  I'm not sure why they keep happening, but I think that, in part, they are a product of my competitive nature.  While that competitive nature can be good in some situations, I need to learn to control it where it does not serve me (or others).  I will apologize to those I offended (I actually already did) and I will keep trying.  And I'll hope that I don't make the same mistakes in the coming week.

Happy Easter!