So how often have you goofed up and how embarrassing was it? Are goof ups embarrassing for everyone? Are they there to make life complicated and make the situation challenging? Let’s see what goof-ups can be like.
- To topple over when reaching the stage for a presentation or topple over when there are people around.
- To fumble while making an important point or presenting oneself.
- To burp while speaking in public.
- To laugh unnecessarily
- Getting one’s shirt torn while going for something important
And there can be many more.
These goof-ups as I have experienced and seen people experiencing can leave one embarrassed if not analyzed in the right way. I too made goof-ups while anchoring a show recently and it left me quite embarrassed for some time. But how long was this “sometime of embarrassment” and if there was something that could be done to balance it? So, the embarrassment lasted for 30 seconds and I added the best dialogues I could right after realizing that I have goofed-up.
What was the learning like? I learned that I could have avoided it had I added a few things to my presentation beforehand and had practised saying ” Let’s have a huge round of applause for…” than fumbling and saying “Let’s huge round have…..ffggjsbjbfjbf.” If I get to anchor again, I am sure the mistakes would not be the same as I would have something else to goof up with. “A huge round of applause” I am sure would go fine as I practised saying it in one breath after getting stuck there. In fact, I would never fumble with it again but yes there would be other things I would fumble with. I am sure there would be a lot many things to goof-up with.
So, every goof-up makes us a little more perfect and then gradually we can come up with our best performances. Another way of looking at it is to feel guilty about it for a few days, feeling messed up, wishing that you would never be called upon the stage again and you would never do what you messed up with. This is where the learning stops and goof-ups never take place. Goof-ups show that we are working and are still alive. It takes a lot of time to get a perfect hang of one thing we have been doing repeatedly and not making a single goof-up ever. I think it hardly happens until one embraces the mistakes and goof-ups so made. You heard it right: Embracing your goof-ups without feeling sorry about them.
How shall one practice to take goof-ups in a healthy way? Firstly, by reading what I wrote above. Secondly, by accepting the goof-ups made by others and taking it in a healthy spirit. While you were walking straight to your department in your college building, one of your fat teachers or the prettiest girl in your class fell down in the stupidest manner and you could not stop laughing. So this laughter meant a rejection i.e. deep in your mind, you did not find her falling healthy, thought that it shows how stupid she is and you even thought that had you been there, you would have looked equally stupid and thank god it isn’t you. Now, if you embrace this stupidity, go and give her a hand taking this goof-up in a healthy way, thinking that it would be a learning for her, that one should walk carefully when the ground is wet or when the surface is uneven, it would give you a healthy mindset to embrace your own goof-ups as well.
In the situation when a mistake is made, if one thinks too much, feels uneasy and wants to hide somewhere, the situation becomes even more intense in one’s head. It cannot be balanced or rectified in the moment, making the mess bigger. Had I not balanced my fumbling with a few good sentences thereafter, people might have remembered me as a weak anchor, who couldn’t manage the situation. If you fell down and stood up laughing like a dumbass, looking at everyone to please them with a smile, it would show what a jackass you are. The same situation can be handled by considering that it is quite normal to fall and maybe I will fall often if I am thinking about something or am in my own world. This thought would help you get up with a genuine facial expression, stretching your legs a bit, cleaning your trouser and moving on.
A goof-up is as big as you take it to be. It’s time to embrace your goof-ups, learn from them, rectify them and be ready for other goof-ups as new situations would bring new mistakes.