Thoughts? Deepa.
Excerpt from *Experience Life *"How to Fail Better": http://experiencelife.com/article/how-to-fail-better/**** **** *It’s not just people in high-stakes professions who avoid confessing their errors. For many, simply being late for a coffee date can unleash a firestorm of self-justification: “Traffic was awful!” “I couldn’t get my brother-in-law off the phone!” “I lost my keys!” Rarely do we hear (or say), “Sorry I’m late. I didn’t give myself enough time.”***** *So what makes admitting blunders so difficult? Research suggests it’s not just ego-protecting defensiveness or the fear of consequences: The human brain may be wired for self-justification. Social psychologists Carol Tavris, PhD, and Elliot Aronson, PhD, coauthors of **Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me* <http://astore.amazon.com/experilifemag-20>*) (Mariner Books, 2008), believe mistakes provoke cognitive dissonance, which they describe as “a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent.”***** *In other words, two ideas like “I’m a good driver” and “I just cut that person off” don’t agree, so instead of acknowledging that we did something foolish or impulsive that a “good driver” wouldn’t, we blame the other driver for being a jerk. This justifies our bad driving and resolves the dissonance.***** *We pay a price for this relief. Needing to be right can alienate us from others and stoke unhealthy perfectionism. Additionally, we miss the benefits that come with being comfortable enough to make, admit and learn from our errors.***** *The good news is that a neurological tendency doesn’t have to be a destiny. We can learn how to fail better*. *Here are five good reasons to learn the art of embracing our mistakes…*
