I just finished up a phone interview with a successful trainer and studio owner. During that interview, she said something more profound than I think she realized. I asked her - given the benefit of hindsight - what she would have done differently in her career. She paused for some time and then said she couldn't answer that question.

It wasn't that she hadn't made mistakes; she just wouldn't have the knowledge and experience she has today without having made those mistakes. She said she learned more from her mistakes than from any other experience, so to trade in her mistakes would be to miss out on some of her most beneficial learning experiences.

What a profound shift in perspective to quit defining mistakes as failures and starting realizing that they are what make us who we are!