A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes,

Smart enough to profit from them,And strong enough to correct them.” ~John Maxwell

Mistakes.

I’ve made a few. 

There’s a gut wrenching moment when your attention is turned to the reality of a mistake. The “I wish I could crawl into a hole right now” feeling that seduces a desire to deny its existence. Denying, though tempting, is enslaving. Disappointing. Haunting.

Truth is where freedom from the mistake begins.

Freeing the embarrassment from lingering.

Freeing the opportunity to learn, grow, mature, correct.

The difficulty is believing my mistakes represent who I am.

But they don’t. 

They only represent what I did, at a given moment, with the knowledge, skill, and ability I had at the time. 

Knowledge can be increased.

Skill can be learned or gained.

Ability can be improved.

And I can use all those to do better.

Owning my mistakes, learning from them and correcting them…are the true measures of a man (or woman, in my case).