How have your perceived mistakes allowed you to grow as a person?

Several themes become clear to me if I pay attention to the experiences my life presents to me. No matter how smart, prepared, or skillful I am, I will make mistakes from time to time. How I deal with these things will go a long way in defining the value my life provides me and those around me. There are two clear choices to make. To accept imperfections as a part of the growth process and use them to become better at whatever I am doing. Or to hide from my mistakes in fear of what they may reveal about me to the world.

Mistakes are inevitable in any life. Some people will lie, mislead, and ignore help to avoid looking like they know something and distance themselves from a potential mistake. That is, things don’t always go perfectly, we do not know everything, and sometimes in the learning process, you have to ask questions from those with more experience about what you are trying to accomplish. Why do we do this? Why should we not do this? Those are the critical questions that can lead to some personal development today.

It has been proven that the mistakes and missteps in the process allow people to experience the most significant advances seen in the history of man. We have all learned longer-lasting and more powerful lessons from the mistakes we share than from the successes. Or at least I know I have. The classes are much more painful, and we want to avoid them in the future. All mistakes are just learning experiences; we can use to benefit us in pursuing our ultimate goals.

It’s In Our DNA

As human beings, we are descended from primitive hunter-gatherers, scratching out a living as best they could against competing groups. That was a time where a mistake could get you killed.

Although you may develop a great new hunting technique or make a brand new weapon that gave you a survival advantage, if they made a mistake, that was your life. We are hard-wired to fear our mortality. The mistakes we make today are probably not in that category, but we treat them the same. That not being perfect is going to lead to or display some fatal flaw. And, of course, our ego will tell us we can’t share this with the world, or we will be found as wanting.

It may be our own mistake or the mistake of someone else, but our instincts tell us at the moment to judge the error harshly and get away from it. Being mistake-free used to keep you alive, but it didn’t help you evolve or move to a higher level of knowledge, existence, or caring.

Brainwashed

From the moment we are old enough to understand things in the world, we are institutionalized by a public education system that provides a model of behavior it wants to see. We are rewarded for following it as correctly as we can.

Those who can’t follow are given “poor” grades and encouraged to try to conform a little bit more to the desired program. The educational system has done a great job of ensuring that creativity is abandoned for conformity at an early age and that any mistake will be considered failing. You will get F’s if your work is not mimicking the desired standard.

There are no errors allowed to express yourself as an individual or try something you are not sure about doing. Only an approved curriculum is rewarded based on learning objectives that don’t seem to create a learning process to allow all people to flourish. Our society looks for reasons that a student might not be performing to expectation, and they have prescribed drugs to help calm them down and make them “better.” A more docile and agreeable student, you will be, but not one that is necessarily true to yourself. Yes, if you make mistakes in school, you will be “educated.” Mistakes are viewed as fatal flaws in the workings of a person. Rather than as opportunities for valuable growth.

Your Judgmental Eyes

As adults, mistakes continue to be frowned upon, whether they are part of your work, personal life, or both. Everyone in the history of people is an expert at making mistakes and also a victim of them.

I believe we should all strive for perfection in everything we do, but you can’t give something your all if you are worried about failing or making a mistake. Whenever you are striving to reach new ground, there is going to be a learning curve.

You may hit the mark on your first attempt, but more often than not, it might take a few attempts to master the curve. If the intent is there to improve something or try something new, you should be given a bit of leeway to master the skill. Be encouraged to ask questions, set a goal, fall, get up, and make a new plan to try again.

Yet how many people tried, failed, were criticized, and ridiculed, which led to them quitting before reaching their ultimate goal. Perhaps it was the judgmental eyes of a loved one that saw the mistake as fatal rather than just a short setback. How many people quit because of this? We fear mistakes because of what people will think about us. Even though nothing great was ever accomplished without making a few errors on the way. Mistakes are never fatal; only the choices you make because of them are.

Get Rid of Fear

In my mind, there is a choice each day to live in fear or to live with love. It is essential to look at mistakes through soft eyes that understand and encourage when you look at them. When we look with judgment on the mistakes of others, we forget the humanity we have experienced in our own mistakes.

Mistakes happen, we don’t want them to, but they are never fatal. When we learn to leave the fear of falling behind us, we will be able to soar to new heights.

“Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.” Anonymous

“Remember that life’s greatest lessons are usually learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes.” Anonymous

“Don’t mention a person’s past mistakes when they are trying to change. That’s like throwing rocks at them while they are struggling to climb a mountain.” Anonymous

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Oscar Wilde

“You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” Maxwell Maltz

“When someone does something wrong, don’t forget all the things they did right.” Anonymous