Are You Making Mistakes? Are You Okay with That?

You need to be perfect now. No mistakes allowed. Every error proves incompetence. Every failure reveals inadequacy. So you hide your struggles. You don’t ask for help. You deal with problems alone hoping nobody discovers your weaknesses. And this mindset destroys you. It makes you less human. It prevents growth. It blocks transparency. It eliminates the courage to take risks, lead boldly, and fulfill your potential. Meanwhile, the belief that perfection is required right now keeps you stuck in patterns preventing the very excellence you’re pursuing. Because striving for perfection is beautiful. Striving for excellence is beautiful. Striving for outstanding is beautiful. But thinking we need to be perfect now puts us in a bad mindset taking us in a bad direction. It makes us hide who we really are. It prevents us from reaching out for help when we need it most.

Here’s what most people miss. Everyone makes mistakes. The question isn’t whether you’ll make them. The question is whether you’re okay with that reality. Whether you’ll be transparent when mistakes happen. Whether you’ll widen your circle getting help instead of hiding. Whether you’ll confess, repent, rally your team, and get through it with courage. Or whether you’ll hide your feelings, keep silent, and attempt to deal with it alone. Jason made massive mistakes throughout his career. He mislocated a two-million-dollar guard station requiring demolition and rebuild. He helped put his wife’s father’s company out of business through unfair treatment. He almost got fired as lead field engineer for having fixed mindset offending people and getting layout wrong all over the building. He got suspended for not speaking up and defending someone who needed defending. He supervised installation of a duct bank right where a sewer line should go costing $350,000. He flooded a basement with four inches of water. And every mistake taught him that transparency works better than hiding. The more open he was, the less painful mistakes became as teams rallied helping him through them.

The challenge is most people have fixed mindsets instead of growth mindsets. Fixed mindset says mistakes prove inadequacy. Growth mindset says mistakes create learning opportunities. Fixed mindset hides problems. Growth mindset exposes them systematically looking for, finding, elevating, and removing roadblocks creating flow. Fixed mindset isolates. Growth mindset widens circles rallying teams. And the transformation from fixed to growth mindset changes everything. Jason went from almost getting fired to training throughout the United States within six months. From being demoted with people not wanting to work with him to being asked to teach at 24 or 25 years old. The change came from reducing pride, increasing humility, learning from lessons of history through the Field Engineering Methods Manual, and implementing everything he learned. That’s the power of accepting mistakes and choosing growth over perfection.

Why Needing to Be Perfect Now Hurts You

Picture the person who needs to be perfect now. They hide their struggles. When they make mistakes, they cover them up hoping nobody notices. They don’t ask for help because asking reveals they don’t know everything. They deal with problems alone because admitting challenges proves inadequacy. They present a facade of competence while internally drowning in issues they can’t solve alone.

This approach destroys people. It makes them less human. Humans are designed to work together, not alone. COVID-19 showed us that isolation destroys wellbeing. Yet the perfection mindset creates voluntary isolation preventing the very help that would enable success. You won’t take risks because risks might create visible failures. You won’t lead boldly because bold leadership exposes you to criticism. You won’t fulfill the measure of your creation because attempting something remarkable risks remarkable failure.

The perfection mindset also prevents systematic improvement. If you can’t admit mistakes exist, you can’t systematically find, elevate, and remove roadblocks. You can’t create flow because creating flow requires exposing problems blocking it. The belief that you should be perfect now prevents the very growth creating excellence later.

Striving for perfection is beautiful. That’s different from needing to be perfect now. Striving means moving toward excellence acknowledging you’re not there yet. Needing to be perfect now means pretending you’ve already arrived creating pressure to hide the gap between current reality and claimed perfection. That gap destroys people.

The Science of Momentum and Growth Mindset

Tony Robbins teaches the science of momentum explaining why most people fail to achieve their goals. They never take the first steps. Here’s the proven model for creating momentum:

• Put yourself in peak state through performance, physiology, focus, and language.
• Find your passion: what fuels your drive, what you love, what you hate, what you really want.
• Commit, decide, and resolve – that’s when your power is unleashed.
• Take immediate, intelligent, and massive action with a proven plan.
• Reflect on your goal, see if it’s working, adjust and take massive action again.
• Keep going with massive action until you find lasting happiness.

The challenge is we often lack leverage. Until we’re told we’re dying of cancer, we don’t quit smoking. Until our spouse threatens to leave, we don’t improve our marriage. We need leverage. Every time we start doing something wrong, we must break that pattern and reframe. Associate pain with what you want to stop. Connect pleasure with what you want to do. Then enter the momentum cycle.

Another key concept: reduce your friction and increase your addiction with things you want to start. If you want to exercise but find it too hard, reduce friction by getting equipment in your bedroom instead of driving to the gym. Increase addiction by watching your favorite show only while exercising. Connect the habit you’re building with things that release hormones and chemicals reinforcing that habit. Reduce friction. Increase addiction. Get leverage against bad habits. Break patterns. Reframe. Associate pain with what you want to stop. Associate pleasure with what you want to start.

Jason’s Major Mistakes and What They Taught

Jason shares stories proving he’s okay with making mistakes because transparency works better than hiding:

• Mislocated two-million-dollar guard station requiring demolition and rebuild.
• Helped put his wife’s father’s company out of business through unfair treatment and documentation.
• Almost got fired as lead field engineer for fixed mindset, offending people, getting layout wrong everywhere.
• Got suspended for not speaking up and defending someone who needed defending.
• Supervised installation of duct bank in the middle of where sewer line should go (cost $350,000 from contingency).
• Flooded basement with four inches of water requiring midnight response and restoration companies.

Every mistake taught lessons. The guard station taught the importance of systems preventing errors. His wife’s father’s company taught him to take care of trade partners instead of unfairly breaking them. Almost getting fired transformed him from fixed to growth mindset through reading scriptures and the Field Engineering Methods Manual. Getting suspended made him sensitive and appropriate with social equality and opportunity. The duct bank taught him to check coordination thoroughly. Flooding the basement taught him that transparency and openness with the owner made problems less painful.

The pattern Jason noticed: the more transparent and open he was about mistakes, the less painful they became. The more he widened his circle getting help, the more teams rallied helping him through problems. The more he confessed and addressed issues directly, the more people respected him. Hiding creates isolation and pain. Transparency creates support and solutions.

Fixed Mindset to Growth Mindset Transformation

Jason was a lead field engineer with fixed mindset. He was offending people. Getting layout wrong all over the building. Not listening. Not doing a good job. People didn’t want to work with him. He was stubborn. So siloed that management had to remove the door to his office. He was about to get fired.

Then two books entered his life: the scriptures from a religious standpoint and the Field Engineering Methods Manual. That began his journey of attempting to read a book a week. That changed his entire life turning him into a growth mindset person. He started being more open. More humble. More willing to learn.

What helped him? A reduction in pride. A desire to be more humble and open. That’s what he got from the scriptures. From the Field Engineering Methods Manual, he learned we don’t belong recreating the wheel. A lot of this knowledge already exists. We need to learn from lessons of history.

Jason started implementing everything from religious texts and the field engineering manual. Everything changed within a couple months. He turned to growth mindset. He started winning so much they asked him to start training throughout the United States at 24 or 25 years old. How often do we have a 25-year-old asked to teach concepts throughout the United States for a company? It doesn’t happen very often. That was the change from fixed to growth mindset in six months.

Why We Succeed as Teams, Not Individuals

General Patton said something Jason loves despite rough language. All this individuality stuff is garbage. The people who say you deal with problems by yourself or you’re an individual or you can handle this on your own don’t understand reality. Humans aren’t designed to do things by themselves. COVID-19 showed us that. We are not designed to do things alone.

You’ve got to become really good at understanding you’re going to make mistakes. You’ve got to become okay with that and realize you’re human. If not, you won’t take risks. You won’t fulfill the measure of your creation. You won’t be out there leading. You won’t have the confidence you need. And you won’t be able to respond well when mistakes happen.

The other consequence: you won’t start looking for, finding, elevating, and removing roadblocks and mistakes and problems as a systematic approach to creating flow. If you can’t admit mistakes exist, you can’t systematically fix them. If you need to be perfect now, you can’t expose problems. If you can’t expose problems, you can’t create flow. The entire system depends on accepting that mistakes happen and addressing them transparently as a team.

When mistakes happen, it’s a decision right then. Be transparent. Widen your circle. Tell everybody who needs to be told. Confess. Repent, whatever the situation requires. If you’re struggling in darkness, get help. If you’re dealing with challenges, speak up. Rally as a team. Get through it with courage. When you do that, people will respect you more than if you attempted to hide it or hid your feelings or kept silent or tried dealing with it alone.

The System Failed You

Let’s be clear. When people think they need to be perfect now, it’s not entirely their fault. The system failed by teaching that mistakes prove inadequacy instead of teaching that mistakes create learning opportunities. Nobody showed that transparency works better than hiding. Nobody explained that the more open you are about mistakes, the less painful they become as teams rally helping you through them. Nobody demonstrated that growth mindset transforms careers while fixed mindset destroys them. The system created perfection expectations preventing the very growth creating excellence.

The system also failed by not teaching that humans are designed to work together, not alone. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. But cultural messages say “be an individual,” “handle it yourself,” “don’t ask for help.” This isolates people exactly when team support would enable success. The system taught self-sufficiency as virtue when actually humans thrive through collaboration and struggle through isolation.

The system fails by not teaching the science of momentum. Most people fail to achieve their goals because they never take first steps. Peak state, passion, commitment, massive action, reflection, and adjustment create momentum. Reducing friction and increasing addiction with desired habits enables change. Getting leverage, breaking patterns, and reframing associations drives transformation. But the system doesn’t teach this. So people stay stuck wondering why they can’t change when the answer is they don’t know the proven model for creating momentum.

The Challenge

Here’s your assignment. Accept that you’re going to make mistakes. Get okay with that reality. Realize you’re human.

Shift from fixed to growth mindset. Fixed mindset says mistakes prove inadequacy. Growth mindset says mistakes create learning opportunities. Fixed mindset hides problems. Growth mindset exposes them systematically.

Be transparent when mistakes happen. Widen your circle. Tell everybody who needs to be told. Confess. Get help. Rally as a team. Get through it with courage. People will respect you more for transparency than for hiding.

Use the science of momentum. Put yourself in peak state. Find your passion. Commit and decide. Take immediate, intelligent, and massive action. Reflect and adjust. Keep going.

Reduce friction and increase addiction with habits you want to build. Make them easier to start. Connect them with things you love. Get leverage against bad habits. Break patterns. Reframe associations.

Systematically look for, find, elevate, and remove roadblocks and mistakes as approach to creating flow. You can’t improve what you won’t acknowledge. Accept mistakes exist. Address them transparently. Create flow through honest problem-solving.

Take risks. Lead boldly. Fulfill the measure of your creation. You won’t do this if you need to be perfect now. But you will if you accept mistakes happen and choose growth over perfection.

Remember you succeed as a team, not as individual. Humans aren’t designed to handle everything alone. Widen your circle. Get help. Rally together. That’s how you win.

On we go.

FAQ

Why is needing to be perfect now harmful?

It makes you hide who you really are, prevents asking for help, and makes you less human. You won’t take risks or lead boldly because mistakes might expose inadequacy. It blocks the very growth creating excellence. Striving for perfection is beautiful, but needing to be perfect now destroys people.

What’s the difference between fixed and growth mindset?

Fixed mindset says mistakes prove inadequacy, so hide them. Growth mindset says mistakes create learning opportunities, so expose them. Jason went from almost getting fired with fixed mindset to training throughout the United States at 25 with growth mindset in six months through reducing pride and increasing humility.

How do you create momentum?

Put yourself in peak state through performance, physiology, focus, and language. Find your passion. Commit, decide, and resolve. Take immediate, intelligent, and massive action. Reflect, adjust, and keep going with massive action. Reduce friction and increase addiction with habits you’re building.

Why does transparency about mistakes work better than hiding?

The more transparent and open Jason was about mistakes, the less painful they became. Teams rallied helping him through problems when he widened his circle. People respected him more for confessing and addressing issues directly than for hiding. Transparency creates support and solutions; hiding creates isolation and pain.

What should you do when mistakes happen?

Be transparent immediately. Widen your circle. Tell everybody who needs to be told. Confess. Get help. Rally as a team. Get through it with courage. Systematically look for, find, elevate, and remove roadblocks. You can’t improve what you won’t acknowledge. Accept mistakes exist and address them honestly.

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