This year's Olympic games began with two back-to-back mishaps for American Mikaela Shiffrin, widely considered one of the world's top alpine skiers. The two-time gold medalist did not finish either her giant slalom or slalom runs, and showed her devastation by sitting on the hill, with her head in her lap, for several minutes.
Though the rest of us perhaps can't relate to such high-profile failure, we all regularly make mistakes, big and small, at work, at home, and in our community.
Dr. Amit Sood, who earned the moniker the "Happiness Doctor" at Mayo Clinic and now leads the Rochester-based Global Center for Resiliency and Wellbeing,offers advice on how to gracefully take responsibility for our blunders. He suggests how to reflect on mistakes and to incorporate what we've learned as we move forward. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Q: We often feel a sense of failure when we don't achieve a goal. How can we reframe our definition of success?
A: The key is to not see failure as a failure. You define your success not by the outcome, because outcome is not in your control, but by your effort and intentions.
Q: What's the biggest mistake people make after committing a mistake?
A: Jumping to validate oneself. You need to own up to it and be ready for the consequence. I knew somebody who philandered and they said, "Oh, it was not my mistake. She pushed me away." Own up to your blunder and do not shift the blame.
Q: Say you forgot to do a task at work, or hollered at your kids, or backed into someone's car in a parking lot. How should you respond?
