Mistakes to Mastery

One of the biggest sayings that I learned and always told myself when playing football was, “That’s not like me.”

Whenever I made a mistake, such as dropping a pass, missing a block, or messing up on my assignment, I would tell myself, “That’s not like me,” and then I would move on to the next play with confidence in my ability to perform at my highest level.

It’s easy to make mistakes in life and get caught up in that mistake, which can lead to more mistakes in the future. If I dropped the ball once, I didn’t have to accept myself as a bad catcher. I could still think of myself as a great catcher, and the dropped ball was not characteristic of me.

In life, we all make mistakes; it’s inevitable. What we can do is decide how we respond to those mistakes. Never let your mistakes define who you are. Tell yourself, “That’s not like me,” and move on from the mistake, striving to be better in the future, just as you know you can be.