The benefits of mistakes (I)

“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” Proverbs 24:16.

One thing many people want to avoid is mistakes. Most of us want to avoid failing or dabbling into error because mistakes, errors and failure come with a heavy price.

Mistakes can be costly. Mistakes are painful. Mistakes bring regret and guilt. Nobody likes to face embarrassment or be embarrassed, and mistakes seem to be an open door to embarrassment so why make mistakes.

There are no guarantees in life that one will never make mistakes. Mistakes are part of the few things in life that are certain. It is commonly said “to err is human”. Mistakes are part of life.

When we make mistakes our errors, faults, inaccuracies, omissions, blunders, miscalculations, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, goofing are exposed for people to see and this comes with a price.

Mistakes put a stigma on us. Mistakes come with shame… we look foolish. We look stupid. We look like we don’t know what we are doing.

“Many people can’t tolerate making a mistake, there are both physiological and psychological reasons for this. Our body’s response to failure is often experienced as actual physical pain. The same areas of the brain that are activated when we experience emotional injury are activated when we experience physical injury. So not only do we physically “feel” mistakes, but we experience shame as a result of an error, and we feel like something is wrong with us if we can’t get something right. Shame is one of the most potent and painful emotions we can experience, and people will do whatever they can to avoid feeling this way.” Tammy Schamuhn

Much as we might want to avoid mistakes we will at one point or the other make mistakes. Much as we detest mistakes mistakes have benefits.

“No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever met someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.” Chris Hardwick

As long as we are in the flesh we are bound to make mistakes.

“We are human. We are not perfect. We are alive. We try things. We make mistakes. We stumble. We rise again. We try again. We keep learning. We keep growing. And we are thankful for this priceless opportunity called life.” Unknown.

The person who will not make any mistake will not achieve anything.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”  Winston Churchill.

TO BE CONTINUED