While at Barnes and Noble this weekend, I read an uplifting article on the topic of mistakes by Terri Trespicio in Body and Soul magazine. I liked it so much I had to jot down a few excerpts to share and keep as a reminder:
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It's easy in hindsight, to say I shouldn't have done this or that. But we never really know what will happen until we do it. Decisions aren't right or wrong in and of themselves. All you can do is choose what seems right at the time. The fear of doing the wrong thing can be downright paralyzing. But to spend your life tiptoeing through a minefield is no way to live - and will hold you back from making bigger, braver decisions that could change you for the better. If you avoided every possible mistake, you'd be very boring. And that choice, to make it your sole purpose to avoid making mistakes, would in itself be a mistake.
Shift the way that you view a mistake --it's all about attitude. Mistakes can offer a kind of insight and perspective that nothing else does. Think about some past decisions you've made that led you to an opportunity you never would have discovered otherwise. Any action, good or bad, moves you in a new direction whether or not you realize it at the time.
Shift the way that you view a mistake --it's all about attitude. Mistakes can offer a kind of insight and perspective that nothing else does. Think about some past decisions you've made that led you to an opportunity you never would have discovered otherwise. Any action, good or bad, moves you in a new direction whether or not you realize it at the time.
Isn't this so freeing? I find it so true what she writes--I can think of various of examples of past decisions I labeled as "mistakes" that actually ended up leading me to an opportunity I probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. What about you --can you think of examples from your life where a "mistake" offered insight, a new perspective, a new opportunity, etc?
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