Mistakes and Failures: Part of Growth

Mistakes and Failures are an integral part of Growth

We all make mistakes once or twice every now and then but when we get knocked down by them, we are not supposed to stay down. You must not contemplate on them for too long. There is a famous analogy that goes something like this: ‘Be like the waves. After they go down, they never fail to rise again”.

See it this way:

Mistakes are life's way of teaching you certain things that cannot be better taught any other way. Not all life lessons are learnt in the comfort of your safe zone – whether it be home, school, or whatever worked for you. Some lessons are learnt outside the confines of your safety, where anything can go wrong and where the burden rests upon your shoulders because the choice that determines the outcome of the situation is solely yours. When the outcome is good, it’s good. When it is bad, it’s bad. Learn to accept both.

A friend put it this way, and I love how she said it: ‘Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals’. There is no way under Heaven that you can become successful without failing; it is simply unrealistic to think that you can win at everything. Just like succeeding is a part of growth, failure is too. Until you accept that, you will not be able to let go of the baggage that your mistakes and failures can place on your life.

You just have to find the courage – it is all within you – to get back up, shake it off, learn what you can from it and keep pressing on; keep pressing forward. Never give up and never quit.

Your capacity to encounter an occasional balls-up is entwined, and in no way divisible, from your capacity to pan out and flourish and thrive.

Stay in the fight!