Ask a hundred people you meet this week what instances spurred their biggest growth in life (any dimension of it) and I'll wager most of those stories will fall under the umbrella of "mistakes." And the bigger the flub, you'll find, the more learning (and benefit) they probably received in the long-term. You'd think that knowing this we'd
welcome the missteps and embrace them as the natural, productive, and highly potent opportunities they are. But not so much. Instead, we live in fear of them, try to circumvent them, endeavor to hide them even when they inevitably happen. We get thrown off by a skewed perception (social media and otherwise driven) that others magically
operate out of perfection. We fall prey to the idea that when we make a mistake, we have a problem instead of an opening. It's too bad really—because in doing so we cut ourselves off from perhaps our most effective catalysts for change...and success.
When we think of success, our minds naturally zero in on the desired outcome. Success is the
ultimate goal, the end product, the final result we wanted all along. While successfully attaining an individual outcome is gratifying, there's the whole process from desire to result that we tend to gloss over, not to mention the bigger perspective we get on what's possible to desire (and achieve).
Mistakes are an essential part of any transformation. Not only do they underscore the whole fallible humanity we're working with, but they bust open the entire process of transformation, helping us break through into deeper dimensions of commitment while redirecting us toward more constructive pathways.
Comment: See also: Senseless abuse: U.S. public schools are still legally beating children, injuring thousands of kids