Don't Be Discouraged?

There are many things that can cause one to lose confidence that includes mistakes. Have you ever given up because you made mistakes trying?

Learning to drive has been something that I've wanted to achieve in recent years. I felt excited, nervous, scared, anxious, enthusiastic for the process. But little did I know that it wasn't as easy as it looked or shall I say I wasn't as naturally good as I hoped.

Early this week, I wanted to practice driving to build my confidence but it honestly left me feeling deflated. The number of mistakes I made goes beyond what I can count on my fingers: I stumbled, I braked hard, I caused the car to smoke, I was so close to hitting a curb etc. I was mortified.

After mistake and mistake, I called it quits- I didn't want to go on further for who knew what I would cause. Even with demonstrations or knowledge on the theory, nothing could help me to correct where I was going wrong. I was disappointed in myself.

I'd apologised every time I made an error, which goes to show how bad I felt for making them. There's nothing as worse as feeling helpless and not being able to right the wrongs - do you know what I mean?

This isn't a pity party don't worry...I shared this to demonstrate how easily I gave up because of a few mistakes.

Nothing should discourage you from doing something you want to pursue. It's easier said than done I know, but you have to find it within yourself or discredit the progress you've made. When you let things stop you from achieving you set yourself up for failure.

There is no doubt that you will feel different emotions ( for me it was frustration )especially when you have continually tried but just know that you will be ok and you are more than able.

As a perfectionist, someone with high expectations of myself, errors were a crime. The truth is making mistakes doesn't mean you're failing it means you are capable of learning and getting better. Don't compare your progress to others nor allow things to make you doubt your ability.

Tips on how to feel motivated:

1.Focus on developing a positive mindset

The way you think plays a major part in your success. It is so easy to act irrationally when you speak to yourself negative things such as 'I can't' or 'I'm never going to get this'. So I would advise that you get rid of the words 'can't' out of your system because it has a way of affecting your development and growth. Shift your thoughts to be more hopeful, uplifting and you'll find you perform better. E.g. I going to stop saying 'sorry' when I make a mistake and start saying 'I will do better next time'.

2. Vision it

Negativity and pessimism seep in when you are not able ( notice how I avoided the word can't hehe) to visualize where and how you want to end up. When I was practising driving I didn't picture myself driving smoothly, confidently etc and as a result, I felt sad. For some people, it is hard to visualize their end goal so I would suggest that they speak affirmations or manifestations which include 'I can...','I will...','I am...' etc.

3.Practice

You shouldn't expect to master a thing if you don't practice. Giving things a go will help you get the experience, skills and confidence you need. Mistakes shouldn't make you question how your practice will help you in future because it has a tendency to do that to most of us.

We often look at people who have already achieved what we hope to and believe that they are 'naturals'. The truth is they put in the time and effort (with patience) to practice what they have now become good at. So instead of being fearful to try again #justdoit and see how you improve.

Guess what, I took my own advice and work through all my mistakes to do my best.

Thanks for reading this, I hope it encourages you to get back up, let me know what mistakes you've made and what you learnt from them in the comments below.