As the saying goes: we humans are not born perfect. The reality is this: we try to be as inhumanly perfect as possible. Whatever we do in life, we try not to make mistakes. Have you actually consciously made a mistake, unless it was to prove a point? I don’t think so (but if you did, tell me about it!) because mistakes are costly. You have to do something again to get it right.
People are willing to pay extra to get something done just right, whether it’s that half an inch less on the hem of that little black dress or just the right sharpness of the bridge of the new nose the plastic surgeon is sculpting. They are willing to hire someone with experience for a job, to lessen the likelihood of mistakes.
The fact remains that as long as we are human, we are bound to make mistakes, no matter how experienced we are at something. What matters though is that how you learn the lesson of that mistake and how well you bounce back from it.
I’m at the point in my life now where I frequently feel like a walking mistake. I know I’m not, but the mistakes that I commit, new or old, makes me feel like I have the ‘Midas’ touch, except that whatever I touch doesn’t turn into gold but becomes a mistake. I suppose I must be patient and persevere, and remember that practice makes perfect!
That phrase would refer to the probability of mistakes that can be lessened the more we sharpen our skills in something. What about other kinds of mistakes, like something we are only given the chance to get it right once? I suppose essentially we are all given one chance to make the right choice in almost every thing we do; there are just some things which are harder to repair or undo when you make a certain decision, like getting a tattoo.
So, we go about life, trying to be as perfect as possible but inevitably stumbling at some point. But rather than to admit we made a mistake, sometimes we pretend it’s not. We might call it a “blessing in disguise” and think that “things” happen for a reason. But I suppose to look at it this way can be true – Thomas Edison, after all, famously said:
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
But what if we had the power to see the future? What if we knew whether a decision to do something this way or that would be correct or wrong? If you had the ability to tell what’s the best way to go about your life, would you do as what your vision tells you? Or would you still go about the ‘wrong’ ways just to see if it’s really as wrong as your vision proclaimed it to be?
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Comments on: "Mistakes and the Making of Them" (11)
Oh, goodness, Sulz. Another post to get one thinking. I’m afraid I am almost fresh out of thinking tonight. I am on a mind break.
But this post is, oh so good, it deserves a well thought out response. It’s an excellent post, not just good. So, I will get back to you with a response tomorrow, when I’m not so tired.
sulz: happy mind break! wow, thank you for the compliment! 🙂 i wish i’d taken more time to write it better now. take your time to reply, i’ll be waiting. 🙂
Just one thing.
An error does not become a mistake, until you refuse to correct it.
We all make mistakes, but what’s more important is that we should admit we were at fault (and I know you’re humble enough to do that), rather than blaming it on something, or somebody, else. We’re humans, remember? We’re bound to make mistakes. However, it is also important that we don’t bogged down by them, as sometimes we’re prone to feel that everything we’re doing is a mistake. The idea is to learn from your mistakes, and then to put it aside.
Life is like an unfinished book. You can always write a new page. It may contain subtle traces of the writing on the previous page, but we must also make sure the ink doesn’t seep through.
sulz: hah, i eat humble pie a lot but i know there are some things i did not admit even though i know i was wrong! wow, i like that unfinished book bit. very apt. 🙂
What if our vision of the future only shows the outcome but not the choices that precede it? Are we going to assume that we’re going to arrive at that outcome regardless of our decisions, or would a different decision cause the result to deviate? So even if we knew the future, I don’t think we’d know each and every choice to make.
To me life is not about undoing or avoiding mistakes, but really taking them in stride. Some mistakes I cannot avoid – they were probably set in motion from a tiny little non-mistake thing I did 10 years ago – so it’s going to be foolish of me to spend the rest of my life regretting that or even trying to figure out a way to undo it. For me, it’s best to try to work with the mistake.
sulz: that’s a really good way to look at it! 🙂
have you seen ‘Back to the future’..?
future changes with change in the present.
i think things happen and if we don’t like the outcome we call them mistakes.
ok some of them have serious outcomes which are not mendable but 95% of the mistakes we make in life don’t harm in any major way. it just upsets what we have planned.
so what.. we can always make new plans.. maybe even a new life..
take mistakes positively.
sulz: i totally agree with this part, “if we don’t like the outcome we call them mistakes”! 😆
hmm, looking at the big picture the little mistakes may not matter in the end, true. 🙂
practice makes perfect??
And just think what shall happen if we practice making mistakes!!! We will atleast be perfect in making mistakes… 😉
But yes, the reality is that to gain experience, we need to make mistakes & to avoid making mistakes, we need to gain experience!! Aaahhh…now that is one vicious circle that everyone wants to get out of…
sulz: hahaha, good one! 😀 oh, that’s a wise thought! but we can’t ‘cos even the most experienced person is human. 😉 that’s what they call the circle of life, i suppose! 😛
I’m back 🙂
Well, I don’t think it is possible to consciously make a mistake. You’d really be taking an action on purpose. Which might end up being a mistake but done willingly.
Sulz, everyone makes mistakes. Big and small. There is no such thing as perfect. Perfection is someone’s personal point of view. Another person may see one’s idea of perfection as a piece of junk or flawed in some way.
You said: “That phrase would refer to the probability of mistakes that can be lessened the more we sharpen our skills in something.” Ohhhh, I like that one!
But when you mentioned the times where we only get the chance to do something once. And if we make the wrong choice, instead of admitting it as a mistake, we say it was ‘meant to happen.’
Good one! I have never thought about it that way before. It caught me off guard because I do say that. And believed it. That it was the path we were meant to follow for some reason or another. But what if that isn’t the case? What if that is how we cover for a wrong move?
Then I got thinking, oh well, it doesn’t matter how we explain it. What is done is done. Move on and try to make the best of the choice we have. Good or bad. We really can’t know what would have been. But we can choose to go with what is, right now, and work with it.
Then you throw us this doozy:
‘But what if we had the power to see the future? What if we knew whether a decision to do something this way or that would be correct or wrong? If you had the ability to tell what’s the best way to go about your life, would you do as what your vision tells you? Or would you still go about the ‘wrong’ ways just to see if it’s really as wrong as your vision proclaimed it to be?’
Geez! Another thing to think about! You are good!
What if your vision was wrong? What if it was only right part of the time? And what if you thought, no…I’m sure if I do this….blah blah.
It would be so tempting to see if it was the wrong path or whether you could change it with just one action.
I have no answer. I’m the type that would not trust my vision 100%. I think I’d forever be testing it.
But I am sorry to hear that you feel you are making mistakes. I’ve made my share, big and small. And there were times in my life I thought I might never bounce back.
You live, you learn. You choose your own path in life, right or wrong. I guess we just try to make the best with what we have to make the life we live as meaningful and enjoyable as we can.
Besides, what one person thinks as a mistake, might be someone else’s idea of a dream come true. Or a good thing. Crap! There are just no answers to this one! Stop making me think, Sulz. 😉
Take care!
sulz: phew, you are sure a cracker when you’re not on a mind break! 🙂
as for meant-to-be things, i’m not really sure if they are mistakes or if indeed they are meant to be. i guess it’s just like that half-full or half-empty glass mentality – your perspective is how you choose to see it and it may not necessarily be right or wrong, it just is. so yeah, no use crying over spilt milk, though i sometimes do! 😆
i think i’d trust my vision if it was something good. something bad, however, i’d think it’s human nature to try and fight from that happening. just like those tv or fictional characters who refuse to believe a bad vision and will do anything to stop that from happening! 😀
haha, you’re right on that one – there are just no proper answers to life!
Excellent post, sulz! 🙂 Ah, mistakes. I do not like making mistakes, but I make them all the time.
You have a lot of words of wisdom here. Human nature is a funny thing. We do need to make mistakes to learn, but of course, nobody likes to admit to mistakes.
And if I could see into the future and see how to avoid making mistakes – I wouldn’t make the mistakes. Having seen what to do right, you could quite happily bypass the “practice” stage and go straight to “perfect”! It’s a pity we don’t have the luxury of seeing the future…
sulz: thank you for the compliment, bobby! 🙂 mistakes make us learn, but we don’t like to make mistakes… do we not like to learn, then? 😆
it would sure come in handy during exams, wouldn’t it? 😉 but if we had such a gift, we would never really learn anything that way.
Very nice! Thou speak the sooth! 😀
sulz: my heart thanks thee! 🙂
Personally I feel that if we already knew how our life would be affected by the decisions we make, they wouldn’t be decisions at all. And that would be no fun. Everybody would do the write things then and everything would be perfect. And that’s not how it’s meant to be, is it? Quoting one of my favorite songs,
“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don’t ask why
It’s not a question but a lesson learned in time
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.
I hope you have the time of your life.”
Knowing everything and making the right decisions would kill the unpredictable factor in life. All days would be the same. All emotion would be happiness. Life would become too monotonous.
sulz: very good point! 🙂 i guess it’s nice to wish for everything to go right always when it doesn’t in your life at the moment. when things do go right all the time, you won’t know what satisfaction or happiness really means.
Wonderful post!
I have been thinking of this because of something ongoing in my life, which requires or maybe I hope I am going to be doing it right the first time. I have thought and re-thought, but then the chance of a mistake happening is ever so impending.
On reading your post, I started to think as to whether I would change my plans if I could see into the future. I guess maybe if I see something very drastic, I would. And if I see something which I believe I may be able to surpass, I shall not. And how does one determine the intensity of a mistake? I guess I would on the basis of how that will affects me in the long run.
Its scary not knowing the future, but I also believe that in that case, when you know nothing, you tend to give it your best and hope till the very end. If someone predicts something, one ends up waiting for that to happen, which is a very sad feeling.
sulz: thanks! your insights on this are good. i especially like what you said in your last sentence. i hope whatever you’re going to do, that things will turn out for the best regardless if you made the right choice or not. and sometimes, we won’t really know what is the right choice because so many other things could happen to make it not right.
What seems to be completely wrong at one point of time might seem completely logical after a few months/years. And don’t forget that whatever position in which you are right now is because of a decision made in the past.
sulz: oh, that’s very wise of you. 🙂 i shall try to keep that in mind!