And more commonly, when something like this happens, we start to look for reasons and find someone to blame for it. Some just blame themselves, and some try to put the blame on others, including people, systems, government, environment, etc.
making mistakes is invariably our essential nature and no matter how careful and meticulous you are, they are bound to happen from time to time
Wouldn’t it be nice if typical mistakes were just like writing with a pencil, so that you can erase and leave no trace of it? In some rare cases, they do resemble that ideal behaviour. You can promptly correct the innocent mistake, and no one would know, and hopefully you would have taken the necessary lesson from it. But in most of the cases, they are invariably like writing with a pen, even when you realise the mistake, there is no easy way of erasing them without leaving a prominent mark.
Having said that though, making mistakes is invariably our essential nature and no matter how careful and meticulous you are, they are bound to happen from time to time. It is just that if you eventually succeed then those mistakes sometimes become legendary, else, well, they are just eventually forgotten.
So, given that we are bound to make them, how to make the best out of it. Of course, one needs to find the reasons and causes and own our mistakes but blaming is not the solution. Now this would probably be the most natural reaction but that does not mean that it is the right thing to do.
In fact, this is a good indicator to understand someone’s character. You need to observe closely, after they have failed at something, if they think it is their own fault or they start blaming others for it. And you have guessed it right, the one who does not look for a scapegoat to blame is the one who you can be sure is going to succeed in life.
Guilt is a root cause of many a mental health issues and is also not useful towards learning in a constructive way
Blaming others gets rid of our responsibility and hinders our progress towards learning from it. On the other hand, blaming ourselves then generates the feelings of guilt. Guilt is a root cause of many a mental health issues and is also not useful towards learning in a constructive way.
The reason for the blame culture is the stigma attached with making mistakes and failing. It goes right back to our childhood and the way the education system works. In school and exams, we are expected to not make any mistakes and never be wrong. We are told that the best student is the one who has does not do any mistakes.
This culture then becomes embedded in our very impressionable minds right from childhood. It makes people fear about making mistakes and failing. Consequently, we think, the best way for coming out of this is to find something or someone else to blame.
What one mistake teaches us; 100 hours of coaching will not be able to
Instead of this we should be actively encouraged to make mistakes. What one mistake teaches us; 100 hours of coaching will not be able to. Main reason being that people can only make mistakes if they attempt doing things. If someone just sits idly, of course, they will not make any mistakes. But that doesn’t get you anywhere in life.
The other thing you need to avoid is comparing yourself to others. Most of the mistakes are not always easily visible to others. So even though it might give the impression that others are perfect, and they rarely make any mistakes, it is not the case. Beating yourself up over things, is the last thing that will get you anything out of this.
Having said that, the first and the most important step is the acceptance of the mistake. That makes you take ownership and responsibility for it. It is an important step towards learning from it and improving yourself.
success is just one more try after your last failure
The next important step is to correct the mistake. To make any meaningful progress, one needs to now look and analyse the mistake and chart a plan for correcting it. Also, we need to be mindful about making a conscious effort not to repeat the same mistake again. That is the key to improving yourself.
While it does not guarantee success when you try it next time, but you won’t know until you have done it again. As a statement of obvious fact, success is just one more try after your last failure.
Practical experiments carried out show that people who try to create things after failing previously, do a much better job. They have more innovative and robust solutions towards the original task, compared to ones who have done it in just the first go.
You need to learn from other people’s mistakes
No one person in the world can make all the mistakes themselves for the sake of learning. But there is a shortcut solution to this, unlike many other things in life. You need to learn from other people’s mistakes. Either people whom you see and meet in life or the better way, in my opinion, is to read the biographies of other successful people.
The advantage in this case would be multiplied, because you are not just learning what not to do, but most of the time you can also read about the lessons they learnt from it and the solution they found for it.
all progress is based on mistakes; the more mistakes are made, the more you can learn from them, and better you get at things
It’s like the saying goes, “Ships are safe when they are anchored on the shores. But that is not what they are built for." Similarly, one must go out and make those mistakes to get ahead in life. In a way, you can also claim that all progress is based on mistakes; the more mistakes are made, the more you can learn from them, and better you get at things.
You need to go through it and willing to suffer, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel. That is the only way to improve and aim to be the best in the world.
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