Everyone makes mistakes.  It’s human nature.  We do something we inevitably regret that somehow affects us in some negative way, and we deal with those consequences.

But some of us are so afraid of messing up that we don’t take risks.  We refuse to take that advanced class because we might not be good enough to pass it.  We avoid cooking because burnt toast smells like failure.  We can’t even have a conversation without running our response through our heads to make sure we don’t say one wrong word that misconstrues our message.  Every little thing can be a potential mistake waiting to happen.

I am a perfectionist.  I fear the very thought of making mistakes, and I bend over backward to avoid them.  Because of this, I also rarely take risks.   Sometimes this is to my benefit.  I have been very successful in school and life.  I have great grades and a spotless disciplinary record.  But I am also anxious.  I stress over every little detail and action.  When I get less than a perfect on a test over a silly mistake, I beat myself up until I’m miserable.  If I forget something for a friend or say a careless thought to them, I tear myself apart to earn their forgiveness even after they provide it because I fear that they will leave me.  Essentially, I cannot enjoy the very life that I am trying so hard not to mess up.

But the beauty of mistakes that I forget far too often is that you can learn from them.  That wisdom can prevent you from making further mistakes, especially even bigger ones.  Sometimes that knowledge can greatly outweigh the cost of making that initial mistake.  This does not mean that we should purposefully be careless and make mistakes to gain some special insight, but it does provide a cushion to people like me who fear the inevitable backlash of our blunders.  The fact that we can still gain knowledge and experience to replace what we may have lost is a beautiful relief.

I believe that mistakes teach us that it’s okay to make them.  That everything can still turn out alright if we mess up.  When life happens and we trip on our path, knowing that there are rocks that we should look out for might prevent us from getting crushed by a bigger one later on.  We live and we learn.