How to Learn from Your Mistakes

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Making mistakes is a part of life. But fortunately, learning from your mistakes can be a part of life, too. Errors in judgment, oversights, misunderstandings and bad actions can all contribute to failure, but such mistakes can also potentially lead to deeper insights or eventual successes.

Taking the time to evaluate the reasons behind a mistake can be an effective way to avoid making the same mistake again. The following are some steps you can take to make it easier to learn from your mistakes:

1. Be Specific About Your Errors
2. Don’t Let Your Mistakes Define You
3. Let Go of the Fear of Failure
4. Reshape Your Goals
5. View Mistakes as Opportunities

1. Be Specific About Your Errors

A good starting point to learn from a mistake is to analyze the mistake—and to do that, it helps to be specific about your errors. To illustrate, let’s use a common type of mistake college students make: getting an answer wrong on an exam. Why did you get that answer wrong? If the reason is that you misread the exam question, you should ask yourself how that happened. Were you nervous? If so, perhaps you could work on ways to keep calm and improve your test-taking skills. Were you rushing to finish because you spent too much time on earlier questions? If so, you could work on trying to improve your time-management skills. Did you simply not know the material well enough? If so, you might want to join a study group, find a tutor, speak with your instructor or pinpoint your weak knowledge areas and dedicate more study time to them on your own.

2. Don’t Let Your Mistakes Define You

While it can be easy to feel down about errors you’ve made, it’s important that you don’t let your mistakes define you. Remember: you are not your mistakes. Instead, remind yourself that mistakes and failures, however upsetting or disappointing they may be, can be learning opportunities that help you grow academically, professionally or personally. Let the lessons you learn define you instead.

3. Let Go of the Fear of Failure

The American writer, artist and philosopher Elbert Hubbard once said, “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” For many people, overcoming the fear of failure can be difficult if not impossible. Fear of failure in students can manifest itself in all sorts of ways. Procrastinating on an assignment, choosing not to register for a challenging or advanced course, or putting off going back to school are just a few possible outcomes that can stem from a fear of making mistakes or failing.

Try to internalize the idea that life is a learning experience—and learning sometimes involves making mistakes. You’ll never know what you’re capable of until you try. Overcoming fear of failure can be difficult, but doing so can provide an opportunity to operate outside your comfort zone and develop academically or professionally.

4. Reshape Your Goals

If you’ve made an error or failed at something, consider whether the goal you set for yourself was achievable. Without a realistic goal and a well-thought-out plan to accomplish it, it’s easier to make mistakes.

The way a goal is framed can potentially affect how achievable it is, so reshaping your goals could be beneficial. SMART goals for college students are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, and they can be helpful in avoiding mistakes and laying the groundwork for success. Compare, for example, the following: (1) I will spend more time studying for my courses this term. (2) I will dedicate at least two hours per weekday and four hours on Saturday studying for my courses this term. The first goal is vague and leaves a lot of wiggle room—a potential recipe for failure. The second is a good example of a SMART goal for college students because it satisfies each of the letters in the anagram.

5. View Mistakes as Opportunities

Almost everyone has heard the phrase, When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. While it may be a bit overused, it’s nevertheless a helpful rule to live by. Instead of viewing mistakes as dead ends, change your mindset and try find a silver lining. Try viewing them as opportunities to learn and grow—after all, simply making a mistake can help you learn how not to repeat it. Sometimes the lesson learned from a mistake will be obvious, but sometimes it will require time and patience to analyze what led to the mistake. For example: Did you carry out all the steps according to plan and not succeed in achieving your goal anyway? Perhaps the steps you took weren’t the right ones, or maybe some crucial steps were left out. Figure it out and make adjustments. Did you take study shortcuts to prepare for an exam, and those shortcuts led to poor performance? Next time, don’t assume you know more than you do—commit to reviewing the relevant chapters in your coursebook instead of simply re-reading lecture notes.

You may not be able to change the fact that you made a mistake or failed, but you can change how you respond to that mistake or failure. Analyze the reasons for your mistakes. Accept that your mistakes don’t define you as a person and then work to overcome any fear of making mistakes. Try using SMART goals to set yourself up for a greater likelihood of success. And always look for a silver lining, no matter how major the mistake may be. Put these steps into practice, and you might be surprised by how much you can learn.

Thinking about starting or restarting your educational journey? Colorado Technical University offers a number of flexible online degree programs designed for busy adult learners. Check us out today, or apply now.

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