Is it necessary to learn by making mistakes?

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

 - Albert Einstein

Mistakes are deeds or actions which are wrong or misconstrued. Often talking about the negative annotation of the word, mistake brings along with it the baggage of guilt, worry, fear, and anger. However, what goes missing is the ability to appreciate the positive connotation of mistakes in personal growth and its integral role in the process of learning. As has been quoted above, right from the origin of life, it is the urge to take risks and to encounter with failures through mistakes that have enabled man to evolve into the modern day human being and the founder of a civilized society. Therefore, learning from mistakes acts as a stepping stone for an individual towards the path of progress and should not be misinterpreted as a faltering step that takes one backward.

As children, we are trained and taught to avoid making errors and be careful in every step of our lives to minimize the chance of taking the wrong decision or action. However, we fail to understand that it is worth considering how one could learn to rectify from such mistakes and seek a solution to a similar unforeseen situation in the long term. The true strength of learning from mistakes is through the ability to acknowledge and accept one’s mistake rather than be defensive or oblivion of one’s fault. Only when an individual has understood the error behind the step undertaken, can one develop the ability to identify the thin line separating the right and wrong. This could be a precautionary step towards counterfeiting the occurrence of a similar blunder in the future.

Mistakes, when treated with pessimism may affect one’s progress negated by the discouragement, lack of self-confidence and motivation which it brings alongside and hinders one from taking a step ahead. However, when treated with optimism, mistakes could enable a person to develop resilience and the ability to take a step towards success by gathering enough mental strength and courage to face any obstacle. It prepares the individual to confront any failure which could keep them back from achieving their goals in the long term.

There are many record-breaking scientific discoveries and inventions which are solely the outcome of mistakes or errors. The difference lies only in the approach towards identifying a mistake as a risk-taking step towards making something better out of it. Similarly, should be the case with any other individual, who could potentially strengthen one’s approach towards life by treating mistakes as challenges or barriers leading to a brighter path and demarcating it from the darker road towards the same destination.

A mistake, when committed, should not be treated to be justifiable or be blamed upon another. It has to be acknowledged through acceptance by the individual thereby assuring a sense of mental peace and calm for the one held responsible. Victimizing oneself with the blame of a mistake or ignoring a mistake could be as damaging to the development of one’s personality. Mistakes do not define an individual and are not the sole characteristics on the basis of which we judge a person. It is only a key for oneself to learn to choose between the right and wrong and to guide oneself towards the path of truth. Complaining or being rhetoric about one’s mistake could take an individual a step back and therefore, instead, a rational step would be to self-analyse the situation and be able to take a decision accordingly to counteract the problem or prevent it from causing further damage.

Rather than treating mistakes as actions evoking self-pity or distress, they should be treated as a second chance to be able to recognize and re-evaluate the step taken previously which possibly led to the blunder. This is an opportunity for one to analyze carefully the decisions taken at an earlier point and how they could be replaced with better alternatives which could have prevented a similarly misconstrued situation from taking place. Further, mistakes could be treated as avenues for further improvement in undertaking important decisions in life or for exploring unexplored avenues to counteract errors and failures. This, in turn, could not only pull back an individual from repeating the same mistake again but also relieve the mind from the weighing burden or guilt of having committed a mistake.

Mistakes could be of great significance in our lives as long as we hold the mental strength to embrace it as a lesson towards a path of growth and development. Mistakes can be attributed to training oneself with a diverse variety of skills, one’s social development, personal growth and life experiences. Some of these errors may have appeared to be absolute blunders but have in reality laid the foundations of the path unraveling great opportunities of learning to improve oneself. With an open mind towards learning and growing by treating mistakes as learning experiences, one could end up having achieved great things in life.