You can be Successful...Even When You Mess Up

I hate messing up. It's much easier to "embrace the lesson" after the fact than it is while you are in the midst of the mess-up and dealing with the consequences. Sometimes you just want to pout and sulk about it.

Messing up is one of my triggers. By trigger, I mean it often brings about a depressive state of mind. It calls forth those dormant negative thoughts that tell me no matter how well I do, I'm always going to ultimately mess everything up again. Moreover, the negative thoughts say that since I'm bound to mess up again, I might as well not fight it and just accept the messed-up-ed-ness as a way of life.

Well, I've had enough of this cycle to know that it doesn't work. No matter how much you try to tell yourself "This is just how I am" or "This is just something that I do". Your true spirit never believes that and will continue to nudge you until you acknowledge it. Instead of walking around in a cycle of guilt and shame, we have the power to turn any mistake into a success. It's all about will and strategy.

I came across the post below, Act as if you've been succeeding and You will succeed from a blog called Pun Intended which is full of funny, inspirational content.

This is just an excerpt from the post. It's all about how defeat happens within our own minds when we allow our old ways of thinking to sweet talk us into submission. Its game sounds so familiar and so comfortable that we are easily seduced. We know the tune, we've danced the dance and it takes no effort to rejoin the pity party and let our old ways take over.

What I hope you take away from this post is:

You have to do things differently to get different results.
You don't have to be a victim of your circumstances and habits.
Your ego will tell you that you can't change, but it's a lie.
You can consciously train your mind for success, even in the midst of a setback.

So anyway, check out this very thought-provoking strategy to try the next time you disappoint yourself. I'm going to try to apply this every chance I get, and I will let you all know how it works for me!

Common Pitfalls and Strategies to Overcome Them

Mistake: You’re on a diet, and slip up badly. You identify with your slip up, and subsequently return to your old eating habits.

Use your mind: Act as if you’ve been successful maintaining your diet for the past ten days. Had you been successful for the past ten days, you would find it important to continue that success today, wouldn’t you?

Mistake: You’re engaged in an exercise program, yet miss two weeks. Your mind identifies with the days you‘ve missed. This identification leads you to conclude you might as well veer off from your goal; after all, you’ve just missed two weeks — why exercise today?

Use your mind: Act as if you’ve been consistent with your exercise program since day one. That‘s why, continuing your program today is so important. After being consistent for the past two weeks, you wouldn’t throw away today – would you?

Mistake: You’ve been doing terribly in school. You identify with your past scholastic short comings, and continue picking up where you’ve left off.

Use your mind: Put your mind in the place it would be had you started improving your grades weeks ago. After so much effort has been placed, you wouldn’t throw it all away today, would you?

Why do we allow our past to dictate our present? If we identify with past mistakes or shortcomings we are bound to repeat them. We become slaves to the past. Let us instead create our own identifications. Let’s be our own masters, shall we?

“When you identify with your past, it owns you. You must own yourself.”

One may interject and say, “but aren’t you merely engaging in self deception?” No. Of course when using this strategy, we know we slipped up. We aren’t idiots. It’s about acting as if we haven’t messed up. If we act that way, we will behave that way, and our today will be one in which we are proud of.


Remember to focus on the now. No matter what you would have done in the past or what might happen tomorrow - you have control over your attitude and decisions right here and now. You are powerful! Instead of being afraid of your power, try putting it to use and be amazed at the results.

"In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time."
~Anthony J. D'Angelo