When you miss the cord

The other day I reached my hand for the cord to open the blinds and I missed! This was a first. I've never misjudged the distance between my hand and the cord to the blinds. In fact, it's almost become instinctual. Everyday I open the blinds and every night I close them. No big deal. And truly it's not a big deal that I awkwardly reached and missed, but since it was the first time it had happened, I noticed. 

Isn't that funny? A simple task, I do everyday, that I never paid attention too (until I missed the goal). A task that (for me) required minimal thought and definitely does not affect my future, unless you consider sun coming through the window and a lovely view, a long term benefit (I actually do!)

How often do we "miss" a goal or deadline in life? Or we don't say what we know we should have in a moment? Or we say something we know we shouldn't have said in a moment?

And then we focus on the miss, the mistake, the words that came out of our mouth. 

Instead, we should be focusing on what we do well, what we succeed at. What keeps us growing and moving forward.

I've opened the blinds hundreds of times, but the most memorable time is the time my hand didn't connect with the cord. 

Think about your day-to-day. How often do you praise yourself for something good? Even if it's as simple as complimenting someone on their shoes in the 60-seconds you have with them on the elevator? Or whether it's biting your tongue from saying what you really want to say to your co-worker who made the same mistake for the 3rd time this week? 

Such a simple "mistake" that really opened my eyes to how we view our everyday. 

Focus on what you've done well and let that attitude grow and prosper. We will all make mistakes, fall short, and disappoint each other. There's not really a way to get around making mistakes.. Unless you burrow yourself in and never expose yourself to people or challenges (and I would argue that decision itself, is a mistake).

I've made a million mistakes and I do not want too, but I am pretty sure I'll make more. I don't want to spend my life focusing on the 1/100 "miss of the cord." Instead I'd rather focus on the 99 times I open and close the blinds successfully. How about you?

Choose to stand up again, with confidence and attack what you know you are called to do. Don't be afraid of "missing the blind" or of making a mistake. Treat every mistake as a learning experience. Move forward. Forget the old; get on with the new. 

There's a huge world out there, waiting for you to take a few shots, miss a few shots, and sink just a couple.