To err is human
| By: Rise
We all do make mistakes and we do regret making them. Based on my short-lived experience (life is short), I would say that the mistakes that I make can be broadly classified into two types - mistakes due to carelessness and mistakes due to wrong decisions. There are simple and very severe consequences of both types of mistakes. But it is not the consequences that make our life miserable, but our response to those consequences.
According to the common cultural assumptions, mistakes are sign of failure and we should try to completely avoid them. Since childhood you are condemned for your mistakes and are pressured to avoid them in future by not ‘repeating them again’. This mentality hampers your decision making ability. You think more about not making a mistake than trying to come up with a solution to the problem at hand. Even I am victim of this thinking. Many times I think more about what if this fails or that fails rather than try to really solve the problem.
In my previous post analysis paralysis and just do it attitude, I mentioned how I am learning to avoid this overthinking, this fear of making mistakes. But decisions do go wrong and I do have to face the consequences. There is no escape. But what differentiates my mistakes from being failures is my attitude towards them. It benefits me a lot to accept the mistake, find what went wrong, and then move on. There is no point in lamenting on it and making your own life miserable. Imagine that you go for a dance show and one of the dancers loses her balance and falls on her butt. If she panicks, feel embarrassed and leaves the stage, you would definitely call her a failure. But if she gets up and starts from where she left, you would appreciate for her courage and attitude. It is the same attitude you need to bring in your daily life.
A failure is a man who has blundered but is not capable of cashing in on the experience. - Elbert Hubbard
Consequences are not in your hands. You cannot control them. What you can do is to take actions and choose your attitude towards the consequences, good or bad. As Viktor Fankl said that the greatest of human freedoms is to be able to choose one’s own attitude. Your attitude determines your response to an event. And your response makes you feel good or bad about your situation.
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