Mistakes: mental burdens or guide to success

Mistakes: mental burdens or guides to success

Kirtveer Kaur Kharoud ( Kirtveer Kaur Kharoud )

ELE, 2nd Year

Mistakes are the stepping stones to wisdom. We learn from trial and error; we become wise by understanding problems. -Leon Brown

‘Don’t carry your mistakes around with you. Instead, place them under your feet and use them as stepping stones to rise above them.’ This perception is undoubtedly the cornerstone of success. Astonishingly, an average human makes a roundabout 50 errors per day regardless of the activity or task they are pursuing, and it’s absolutely fine; we all make mistakes; we learn from them and grow. However, clinging to our mistakes worsens them and does not help us much. It is basic human nature to make mistakes and outgrow them. Take the example of an infant learning to walk; he tries, falls, hurts himself, and tries again. What if he ceases his tries the first time he falls and hurts himself? He would never be able to walk. We all have started our journey from this point, and today, at whichever point you are already successful in life or struggling, just remember to embrace your mistakes, surmount them, and try not to make them your culpability. Al Kingsley, a renowned author, and speaker, once said in his interview, “When we fail or make mistakes, it’s easy to feel sorry for ourselves. And while this can be a good time of reflection and understanding on what went wrong so as to not repeat the same mistakes in the future, there is always room for improvement with anything gained from these learning experiences.” We all know it’s arduous to process when some things do not go according to our plans; try to adhere to the lines quoted above and try not to wallow in self-pity about how bad everything feels right now. In lieu, espouse your sublime journey throughout this entire period. Some of the most remarkable innovations till now are outcomes of the most dreadful mistakes. For instance, take the discovery of super glue.

The scientists were trying to make clear plastic gun sights for allied soldiers during world war two but, on the contrary, ended up creating super glue that no one could even think about during that time. So as an engineering student deriving the ratio of mistakes made to the success achieved, I can undoubtedly say that the proportion of errors made or mistakes made is directly proportional to the success achieved. Analogically, the sky-scrapping success is just behind the abundant mistakes you made and the learnings you constructed by analyzing them. Acceptance plays a significant role in preventing your errors from becoming burdens, and once you have made peace with this fact, you are on your way to having a much more resolved mindset. We need to be more vocal about owning the responsibility for our mistakes and communing them to someone we can trust, who will not judge us or give abrupt suggestions or sugarcoat their judgment; you need a virtuous critique by your side and how astounding you will feel finding the amount of contentment encountered by verbalizing your concerns. Tune in to have little self-talk that encourages you and motivates you to overcome the self-guilt. Perpetually try to procure from your mistakes and integrate them into your existence. I remember that when I was in fourth grade, and the entire class was working on a project; everyone had to make an individual sculpture, everything was going fine, and suddenly when I was giving some final touches to my project, I ended up completely tearing it down, and out of nowhere a rather evil plan struck my mind, and I secretly interchanged my project with my friend. In hindsight and having become more mature over the years, I realise that I should not have taken this unethical step trying to cover up my own mistake, several parents were called, and no one was allowed to leave the room without getting their projects checked to find the actual culprit, and I finally had to admit my wrecklessness.

Looking back, I realize it would have been far easier and less embarrassing if I could just accept my mistake and submit my project instead of interchanging. This has been the most memorable and life-changing learning for me till now. This incident taught me to hold responsibility for my mistakes instead of covering them by doing something unethical. Now, I feel blessed to have had this experience before venturing into life. Increamating oneself needs fortitude and displays characteristics of quality leadership. Go beyond admitting your fault and work on your mistakes as Patrick Doyle, CEO of Domino’s, did. He came up on national Tv and confessed that his pizzas were not up to par, affirmed to do much better, and the response from everyone was exceptionally positive. The way he admitted his mistakes helped him work on them, and by remodeling ended up being one of the leading companies worldwide. Making mistakes is inevitable, but they also account for an extremely valuable growth experience. It is all about converting your mistakes positively into an opportunity to learn and vowing not to repeat them. Instead of over-dwelling on them, one can remember that our mistakes can help us in enhancing our confidence by providing strength for encountering failure. You must not be flabbergasted hearing how people are made to feel bad about making mistakes, leading to a desperate feeling of living without mistakes. From an early age, we are accustomed to following social etiquette and are punished for not doing tasks in a particular way designed from age. We need to get over this scenario and believe that there is more to making mistakes as compared to what most of us have been led to think. Successful people put preponderance on making continuous efforts to reach their goals and grasp every opportunity in their way, not fearing from making mistakes this is the point where rest of them lack behind on their way to avoiding mistakes most of the people end up missing opportunities. We have many great personalities from various fields in front of us who put a lot of emphasis on growing from your mistakes and not making your mistakes mental burdens. A prime example of this is Michael Jordan. The official NBA website describes him as the greatest basketball player of the century, and focusing on his remarkable words from an interview, he said he has missed more than nine thousand shots in his life and lost almost three hundred games, and failed over and over again, made mistakes at every step and this is the reason behind his success. Failed attempts are unavailing when you don’t learn from them, avoiding mistakes is the most tranquil way of becoming unsuccessful. In the climax, I would like to comment that a mistake is just a Mis-Take. We can perpetually start over again from our last Mis-Take and use it as an opportunity and not make it a mental burden.