Nobody likes to make mistakes. In life though, mistakes are inevitable. We are going to make them and how we deal with them often determines our knowledge and happiness. If you have struggled in dealing with your mistakes in the past, fear and agony may be some emotions you are familiar with.
Mistakes hurt. No matter how much we try to forget about them, they still bother us. We try to forget about the mistake but it keeps popping up in our mind. Each time it does we feel insecure, anxious, and guilty. It is usually the pain and guilt we feel afterwards that is worse than the actual problem. This process of beating ourselves up mentally for our mistakes is a serious detriment to our happiness. Learning how to deal with mistakes is a driver for sustained happiness.
Think of a mistake as stepping on a tack. It will be quite painful at first, but applying a band aid should work as a effective remedy. A tack is so small it cannot do that much damage. Just like the mistake you made will hurt or be embarrassing. While those are certainly not positive feelings, the overall damage is not to severe. Pain and embarrassment are only temporary. There are not too many mistakes you can make that will cause severe damage. A mistake is only as bad as you make it to be. Nobody should be mad at you for making a mistake. Because all humans make mistakes. Nobody should expect perfection from you.
When you let a mistake affect you personally and you beat yourself up over it, it’s like stepping on a knife. A knife is very painful at first and can cause serious damage. A knife can cut all the way through skin and muscle. A tack cannot do that. Just like a small mistake cannot affect you internally if you do not let it. Internalizing a mistake is like the knife that tears through your skin and muscle. When you beat yourself up over a mistake, you are driving that knife further and further into yourself. The pain, embarrassment, and guilt now becomes harder to deal with than the actual mistake itself.
Don’t do this to yourself. Internalizing your mistakes only leads to more pain and agony. All a mistake does is prove that you are human. If you agonize over a mistake you will become afraid of mistakes. When you are afraid of mistakes you are really afraid of life. That is because life is full of mistakes. You cannot embrace life itself if you are avoiding mistakes. When you fear mistakes, you become timid and closed-minded. Your fear of making a mistake overpowers your need to expand yourself and gain more knowledge. There is knowledge to be gained from your mistakes. Do not miss out on that.
When dealing with your mistakes, you want to either learn from them or forget about them. I do not believe that you can learn from every mistake. Some mistakes are inevitable and no matter how much you prepare mentally, physically, or emotionally for them, the mistake will still happen. That is just part of life. Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself when you make a mistake. This prevents you from taking yourself and your mistakes too seriously. It will help you forget about the mistake and place your focus on what is next.
The most effective way in dealing with your mistakes is by learning. You should want to make mistakes. Especially when you are first starting something new. All the mistakes you make will leave you with great insight and knowledge. Insight and knowledge that makes you better and more prepared as you advance. Dealing with your mistakes in this manner makes you better and avoids feelings of pain, guilt, and agony. A mistake is just another way of doing something. Make as many mistakes as you can, it will only lead to more knowledge and happiness.
The Rolling J / Jonathan McClure
Previous J of the Day – https://therollingj.net/j-of-the-day-how-to-balance-your-inner-chemistry/
LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mcclure-0594aa17b/
Related Posts
COMMIT TO BEING A LIFELONG LEARNER
Being a lifelong learner means that you are constantly on the pursuit of knowledge. When you commit to being a lifelong learner, the mind can never become complacent. A complacent mind will hold onto previously held beliefs and opinions even when new information is presented. The complacent mind is unwilling to change because it does not want to seem inconsistent.
HOW TO CONNECT WITH AND LEARN FROM NATURE
Rarely do we ever have an opportunity to relax, observe, and listen. Nature provides us with fulfillment and enrichment that we desperately need. It provides with the opportunity to take in and appreciate our surroundings.
J OF THE DAY – Maximizing our time on Earth
We as humans understand that there will be a fateful day where our lives on Earth end. Yet so many of us do not take full advantage of the time we have. We spend time worrying about things that really do not matter at all. We view life as an obstacle instead of a wonderful journey full of beauty, surprise, and adventure.
J OF THE DAY – 5 habits that support growth
Our character cannot be good if our actions our bad. Our character is not set in stone. In other words, we have the ability to both lose our character and build it up. Our character can only change if we do.
J OF THE DAY – How to engage yourself more
The easiest way to a dull, frustrating, and lethargic life is by spending your time doing things that don’t interest you. Your mind craves the feeling of interest, do not deprive your mind of this. Following you interests is how you engage yourself more. It will also help develop passion, and a desire to learn more.
J OF THE DAY – Socrates’s 3 responsibilities of all humans
If we simply take everything at face value or the way it appears, we are neglecting the most significant differentiating factor between us and animals. Which is the ability to think in a rational way. This is doing a disservice to all the progress we have made as humans. Our impulses can be strong, but our ability to think and reason is much stronger. Our ability to think and rationalize is our greatest superpower.
J OF THE DAY – Why you should always speak your truth
It is not just our duty to absorb the lessons and knowledge of those who came before us. It is also our responsibility to create and add to the advancement of society. We need to speak our truth. Hiding our truth from the world is a slap in the face to all those who came before us.
J OF THE DAY – Good is always around the corner
No matter how down things seem to be, something good is always around the corner. Stay focused on all the positive things in your life. Even the smallest of things. This will help keep you from getting to down on yourself and letting circumstances affect your happiness and inner peace.
J OF THE DAY – Depth of experience
Think about depth of experience like a sponge full of water. Depth of experience is like squeezing the sponge until all the water comes out. Depth of experience allows you to get the absolute most out of whatever you are doing.
J OF THE DAY – Don’t let next year become never
Don’t let next year become never. When you give yourself a long time frame to get started, it is the same thing as when you think too much about your idea. You end up convincing yourself it is not worth it.
J OF THE DAY – Balancing between too much or too little
Habits like drinking, smoking, eating junk food can only cause serious damage if you do them either consistently or in excess. It is not usually the habits themselves that become problematic, it’s the frequency in which we do them.
J OF THE DAY – How to balance your inner chemistry
Our inner chemistry contains four separate components that are all interconnected in some way. Those four being mind, body, soul, and spirit. These four elements make up who we are as human beings
I am not positive where you are getting your information, but great topic. I needs to spend some time finding out much more or working out more. Thank you for great info I used to be in search of this info for my mission.