Apparently according to the wire story Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer made a "gaff" during his race that will go down in Olympic history! I have read the account of what happened about ten times and I still don't get it.
I am not a skater. Not a speed skater or even a "stop yourself once you get going" skater. As a kid I went ice skating with my siblings and friends....and I always depended on the snowbank on the edge of the pond for an assist when I needed to stop :). So from my framework anyone who can skate, stop themselves and maybe even skate backwards...is gifted in a way I could only dream about. So I miss what his gaffe was. I can live with that.
But of course it brought to mind...gaffe or gifts. How we frame what happens to us. When something goes wrong most of us are ready to hang ourselves out to dry for whatever has happened long before the dust settles. Part of that I think is the need to beat the other folks to the punch. It feels better to say I screwed up VS. you telling me.
But here is a thought. What would happen if you or I even paused for a second and really looked at what happened. Maybe it was gaffe..a mistake or maybe it was a gift. You are running around like a crazy person and you miss getting something important done. Yes...that could be a mistake but it's also a clear sign you are overloaded and need to look at that.
Call it a teachable moment...call it a gift...call it a timeout. Call it a gaffe or a mistake if you wish...but whatever you call it ... make the next thing you say or do an action so you can fix what you can and then benefit from what happened.
Yesterday I wrote about not being perfect...not doing it all right all the time. That is a tremendous pressure to put on yourself. A better framework to work towards to to look at things that go wrong as having a message for us. If we get the message chances are the same thing won't happen again. That's the gift. Ignore the message and that's where the mistake comes in...
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