You're Not A Screw Up...IF You've Learned

If you receive Engel's Ensights, the Marcus Engel Newsletter, you may still have this month's article, "Screwing Up" sitting in your in box. If you'd like to read it, it can also be found on EzineArticles.com.

Here's the premis, just because I think it's worth repeating...

A few weeks back, I spoke for Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. My audiences were primarily composed of SU's student athletes. The focus of my programs were to inspire SU's student athletes to make intelligent choices, especially concerning substance abuse and impaired driving. As with so many of my programs, this one was funded through the NCAA's Health and Safety Speakers grant to help encourage student athletes to make wise decisions.

Dr. Wayne Edwards, the athletic director at Shenandoah, and I struck up a friendship while I was local. Here's why...

After hearing me speak, Dr. Edwards introduced me to a young man who is a student athlete at SU. With tears in his eyes and a cracking voice, the young man admitted that he'd recently been charged with driving under the influence. After hearing my program, he understood more fully that his choice to drive under the influence could have hurt or killed someone else...or he himself.

Dr. Edwards put his arm around the guy and said, "I see really great things on the horizon for this young man. He's going to make me really proud!"


In essence, Dr. Edwards' faith in this young man showed that he (the young man) had screwed up...but he was not a screw up. He made a mistake...but a mistake from which he learned a very valueable lesson. I can only hope my keynote to the SU community played a part in the transformation of his thinking.

We all screw up. But if we're learning from our screw ups (and provided they don't have serious consequences), that enlightenment is about the best we can hope for.