Thursday, November 11, 2010

MISTAKES ARE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING

An except from an email sent me by a friend ... "Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment "doesn't work," we usually learn something valuable from it. Make mistakes, you learn from them . . . . but never repeat mistakes . . . ." (Unquote)

It's been spoken and written lots of times before. So have I written too. That can't be said often enough. Because it's going to be there until we agree to learn or care to listen.

What life guarantees is an ample measure of life questions - lessons - discovery - challenge - mystery - search - problems - tests, as a rule. And to these we are asked to put in no less than our courageous involvement and commitment. As Mom told me long ago... "Life does not send us answers but rather sends us questions and challenges to attach answers to."

However if we so fear or dread the difficulty pain or discomfort that learning entails, then we probably won't be doing much in our lives as we would be simply coasting along in mediocrity. And dreams will simply remain dreams. We should try to shake away that fear, go ahead and step out into the unknown. So what if we should make mistakes. That's okay too. Nothing can kill us but our own thoughts. Everybody makes mistakes - great men and women in history may have bungled their jobs in some and probably felt miserable about it. But they didn't let it stop them. Instead they kept on at their tasks, bungled some more perhaps, and yet kept on until at last their concerted efforts met with success. Now we enjoy the fruits of their hard work and making our lives easy.

We can do the same. It's just in looking at mistakes the way they saw it to be --- that mistakes are opportunities for learning. Knowledge, growth, progress, maturity, and learning are always paid for by and with our mistakes.



7 comments:

  1. Ellen,

    Read 3 posts now. If parents have done their bit sincerely, there would hardly be any deviation from right path by the child even when an adult. However each individual makes his or her own decisions and that may not be in keeping with what we expect from that person. Looking forward to 10 Must Haves in Relationship. Hope you share it soon. You have motivated me to write on it. We need to overcome fear of the unknown and venture into what we feel may be beneficial to us as well as society. Failures are stepping stones to success.

    Take care

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  2. Oh wonderful, Jack. I shall be coming to your blog to see it (10 Must Haves in Relationship). Gee, I don't know if I can do the same as I am still very much a student in that arena. Lols! :-) But you sure gave me an idea.

    Thank you for coming by with your comment. The pleasure is all mine cos it's always a delight to see you. Have a blessed day!

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  3. Thank you Ellen for an inspiring post!

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  4. So nice to see you, Librangirl! Real good! How's life at your end? Busy? :-) Well, we do have our share of it, don't we all?! Blessings to you and your loved ones... tons of it! Many thanks for your lovely visit. See you around!

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  5. Hi Elen,
    I too look at mistakes as opportunities to learn; it makes accepting mistakes easy. I think whatever happens today, there is always a tomorrow.

    How did you daughter's wedding go?

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  6. Hi Indra,

    So sorry this took awhile to reply. Was busy helping with the paint job in the living room. :-) The wedding went quite wonderfully -- lovely memories to last a lifetime. Thanks for asking. If you weren't so far away .. would be lovely to see you there too.

    Wonderful attitude to start a day with .... ".. whatever happens today, there is always tomorrow". Thanks for sharing this.

    Thanks for taking time out to come by. Delighted that you did. :-)
    Take care and God bless you.

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:-) Here's where I warmly welcome you and where you leave your footprints behind with fond memories attached to it of wonderful chats and friendships. Thank you for your comments. Or send your comments to ellen622@gmail.com. Will be seeing you in your blog too. God bless you!