What to do when we make a mistake?
In the old
culture, we would fight against mistakes and condemn everyone who commit them as
sinners… After all, we should be perfect, right? At some level, it
worked as people tried their best to avoid errors; on the other hand, it
created a fake side of our society, with lots of people hiding their
mistakes.
Our present
new culture is different. An interesting cartoon circulating around shows two
parents in the past complaining to their boy about his marks; at present, they
were complaining TO THE TEACHER about the same… We tried so much to prevent
errors, that we start to think we don’t make mistakes.
A story was
sent via internet not long ago, about a person from a new generation. She made
a mistake in the text she wrote, and her boss explained it to her. Big oops! The
young employee couldn’t accept and made it very clear, not only in her office,
but she even called her mother, who, apparently, supported her perfect
daughter.
But it is
not the young woman’s fault or her mother’s; it is the context we have created along
the years, pretending no errors ever occur, of if they do, it is because
we were bad people. Very bad people.
Maybe we
should visit that topic and rethink it. Errors are not good, mistakes can
damage relationships, ruin careers and many other bad consequences, and yet, it
is one of the best ways to learn! In fact, it is not realistic to expect
perfection at the first time…
Mistakes
can be our teacher, if we allow them to do that, instead of making us into sinners
or horrible people.
They can be
the leverage we need for our transformation.
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