by Cindy Woods

Created on: April 17, 2009

The biggest lesson people can learn from making mistakes is we all do make mistakes. Making mistakes is part of being a human being. It's OK to make mistakes because through them we, hopefully, learn and grow as people. Sometimes people will continue to make the same mistakes over and over, but only because they have not learned the lesson life is trying to teach them.

I use to feel making mistakes meant I was stupid or inadequate in some way. I learned, thanks to a wonderful boss I once had, it is OK to make a mistake as long as you learn from it and don't do it again. I don't think she ever really knew the impact her understanding and reaction to my mistake had on me.

I started working at a local newspaper and had been there a couple of months. A customer came in who wanted to do some advertising. My job was not at that time to sell display ads, I knew the rates but had no idea on how to measure them out. I explained this to the customer. He did not really care that I wasn't completely sure on what the total cost was at the time and wanted me to give him an estimate. So, I figured out what I thought it would cost based on what I did know, and wrote it up.

When my boss came in later I showed her what we had worked out. I was afraid I had figured to high and overcharged the customer. But I had actually considerably under charged him. My first thought was, "great I've only been here a couple of months and I'm gonna get fired."

Instead, my boss looked me in the eye and said, "You messed up,(not the term she used by the way) just don't do it again." And that was the end of it. I was completely shocked and relieved. It also made me realize making mistakes is part of being human, it doesn't make us stupid, or unworthy or even a bad person.

Sometimes the mistakes a person makes can be tragic or cause harm to others. Things like drinking and driving. A mistake like this is more difficult to recover from because it's not just the person who has used horrible judgement that has been hurt. Hopefully this kind of mistake is learned from and never repeated.

We learn how to relate to others by the mistakes we make, how to manage money, what to avoid, and so on. WE also learn what not to do by paying attention to the mistakes of those around us.

Life is a journey, we are all on the same journey. Making mistakes is all a part of being human, if it wasn't the world would be a wonderful, idyllic place to live, and we all know that isn't reality.

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