In a perfect world, we would always be perfect and the word “mistake” would not exist . Alas,  as we all know, the world is not perfect and the word mistake very much exists and the act occurs on a daily basis. That being said, there’s good news because even though we all make mistakes, those mistakes can actually be invaluable. Now this is where some of you are going to think I’ve had a little too much coffee during my late night writing session, but believe me I speak from experience when I say that mistakes can sometimes be one of the best things that ever happen to you.

Growth and Accepting Your Mistakes

The first thing you need to realize when it comes to mistakes is that as horrible and cringe-worthy as they may seem at the moment, they are a part of life. You’re not the only person to make a mistake, you won’t be the last and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll make another mistake at some point in your life. Accept it… and more importantly, realize that it is done and in the past. Most of us have heard the saying, “there’s no use crying over spilt milk,” and this exactly what I’m talking about. The past is done and gone and no matter how much you may wish to go back and fix your mistakes you can’t.

What you can do, however, is grow from those experiences. Once you can accept that things can’t be changed you truly start to grow from it. It is in that realization, my friends, where the hidden beauty behind mistakes lies. If we never made any mistakes we would be missing out on a big part of our personal road towards growth. This is not to say you should run out and make mistakes just for the sake of making them…that won’t help you grow any quicker…but you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself or fall into a pit of self-pity either when they do occur. Sometimes acceptance over our mistakes can be hard, but I imagine it can’t be any harder than having to commit the mistake over and over again.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Learning from your mistake is a key component to making sure that you don’t continue to commit the same mistake over and over again. What you should realize is that every mistake carries its own valuable piece of wisdom that helps you in your journey towards growth. Think of when you were a child and you were told not to put your hand on the hot stove. Let’s admit it…how many of us didn’t totally disregard that and put our hand on the stove anyway?  I’m betting quite a few of you, as did I, and boy did it burn! But, I bet after that you weren’t trying to reach up and touch the stove anymore because you knew if you did so you would get burned.

In the same way you were able to recognize that by touching the stove you caused your fingers to get burned, when you come to accept your mistake the next step is to look at why it happened. Mistakes can teach us a lot about ourselves and what we want and just as importantly, what we don’t want in our lives. We learn to recognize the behaviors and actions that are not conducive to what we want to accomplish and how to stop from repeating them.

You Learned Now Let It Go….

Once you have learned your lesson there is only one thing left to do…let the mistake go. Sometimes we hold on to the mistake because we think we need it, but if we’ve learned the lesson from it there is no reason to hold on to it as if it were a security blanket. It does not serve you and to dwell on it only stunts your growth. Whether the mistake is big or small, it does not matter. When you finally let it go you will realize how much better it feels to move on. Take what you learn from the lesson and know that it is something you can apply to your future and that you are better for having learned it.

At the end of the day, your mistakes help to make you the person you are. You can chose to look at mistakes as something negative or as something positive that helps you to grow. The choice is yours and can go either way, but why not chose the positive side of the coin? ^_^