OWN YOUR OOPS!

Before I began writing about the subject of our mistakes/or oops, I decided to do a quick google search on quotes about mistakes. Here are a few that stood out:

• Mistakes are the stepping stones to learning.
• Mistakes are not a problem, not learning from them is.
• More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them.

These are some really great lessons about mistakes! I will call them the "oops" we all make in life. The game of baseball refers to a mistake as an unforced error. In basketball one could call a foul a player may unintentionally commit (not the flagrant kind) as a mistake. Who among us has not committed those face grimacing mistakes and unforced errors? I call them the Homer Simpson moments. You know those moments when you place your hand on your head while exclaiming a frustrating "Doh!" Some people mistakenly look at their oops as a negative thing or as weakness. We dare not allow anyone to see how flawed we are! I mean come on, we got our sh$t together! We won't show or share our imperfections because we are so afraid of being judged. I've come to understand that living like that is a disservice to ME. I am not being authentic and honest with myself or others. Don't get me wrong, I am not spilling my guts to people that have not earned the privilege of my trust. That is a relational decision. However, I do believe our oops teach us more than anything else ever could. If we allow it, our oops can usher in our next genesis. When we decide to shine a light on, embrace and understand our mistakes, our spirit-self grows & expands. The process of owning the oops requires assuming ownership no matter how ugly and uncomfortable it may be.

Children learn this lesson early on, long before they've developed decipherable language skills. A baby has the ability to understand the stove is hot - it hurt me - I will not touch it again. It's amazing how babies can learn from the pain of their oops. We live in a time where it is expected and accepted behavior to hide anything that doesn't make us look shiny & new. People can't see or know about the mistakes I made when I was 21, 31, 41, 51. We don't realize that by hiding our oops we give it the ability to reincarnate the guilt, shame and self condemnation that lies in the shadows. When we expose our unforced errors, embrace and learn from them we turn that thing which was bad into something good. We learn. We grow. Recognizing and and taking full ownership of our oops creates an opportunity to milk it for every lesson you can possibly get from it. In fact we can choose to bend that mistake to our will! Lol. Once we've accomplished that goal we can finally let go and move on. You will be able to move on without looking back or digging it up again to perform an unnecessary autopsy. Believe me, there will be plenty of opportunities to learn from our oops in the future...we are only human remember?

~ Veronica