IT MAKES LIFE MORE INTERESTING
One of the last blogs I wrote in October was about the value of taking risks. Whenever you take risk and try something in which either you are not familiar or is outside of your comfort zone, you are generally going to make a mistake. While mistakes can put you in some tough situations, they generally will allow you to experience things that are more interesting than what you may have experienced from doing your every day to day routine. Doing the same thing every day is pretty safe and will often prevent you from making many mistakes, but it can also lead to a life that is not very interesting. Sometimes by trying things differently, you may not turn out to do the best or right thing all the time, but at least you have a different perspective than you did before by experiencing something different and stepping outside of your comfort zone. This isn't to say that we should try to make mistakes on purpose to make for an interesting life, it is just to encourage one to not be so close-minded when thinking about different aspects of one's life to see what could possibly come of it. Sometimes things that originally look like a mistake turn out the be a blessing in disguise.
HURT COMES FROM MISTAKES - CATALYST FOR CHANGE
This one seems to be contradictory at first because why would anyone want to have hurt in their lives. The difference, however, is that some people will not ever change what they do in life unless they experience some type of pain that will be the catalyst they need to make a life change. This is why drinking, obesity, and smoking are some of the three leading causes of death in America. It's because it doesn't hurt you immediately (it actually makes you feel good), but it slowly eats away at you over time and kills you. It's only when we experience some major pain (crashing our car, high blood pressure, or lung cancer) that people finally decide it is time to make a change. While no one wants to have to experience these things in life to make a change, sometimes this may be the only way. Whenever, you make a mistake in life (no matter how big or small), think about WHY you made it in the first place and then get to the crux of what needs to change in your life that this doesn't happen again. Often , we don't spend enough time analyzing the nature of why the mistake happened and don't put enough blame on ourselves. By doing so, you can identify the changes in your behavior that you must have to prevent making the same or similar mistake in the future to improve yourself and, subsequently, your future.
YOU CAN UNEQUIVOCALLY SAY YOU KNOW RATHER THAN THINK
This last reason is focused on how, as we mature, we sometimes look back on life and have a "what-if" moment. This is related to our decision to do things that we always know are right versus trying something different that may turn out good or bad, but we won't ever know unless we go for it. Often in life, playing it safe is the best way to go, but it can create a life that, when reflected upon, is filled with moments of perpetual regret because someone didn't take a chance to try something different or do something that they weren't 100 percent sure they should do. While often, you may still be right about the decision you ended up making, at least you will never have that feeling of "I wonder what-if." I know it seems a little backwards, but there is something to be said for a woman who marries the person of her dreams because she's dated enough "losers" to know the difference between a prince and a frog versus someone who only dated the same person their entire life and doesn't truly know her prince is really a frog in comparison to what else is out there. This is not to suggest that everyone should immediately divorce their spouse if they haven't had the chance to live a full life, but it is to say that you have to think through decisions holistically and explore the long term ramifications of making decisions when you try to be too conservative all the time. You don't know what you are missing if you've never had a chance to experience it. Mistakes sometimes give you the chance to do that.
Overall, I'm not saying that we should all go out and do the dumbest thing we can think of to see what we can learn from it. That would be ridiculous. What I am saying, however, is that whenever you do make a mistake, don't sulk about it and beat yourself down. Analyze it, understand why you made it, what you learned from it, and how you are going to be a better person as a result of it. And while I can't promise you that all mistakes will turn out good in the long run, your ability to consistently analyze and improve who you are as a human being will allow you to make your mistake work FOR you rather than AGAINST you.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech (Graduate in May! - Whoop Whoop!). You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN
