by Wayne Leon Learmond

Created on: July 17, 2010

It is very rare indeed, that human beings are born with hindsight before 'experience'. For if we had all been born with hindsight, then we would never make any errors at all during our lifetime here on earth. Errors, mistakes, call them what you will, are a necessary part of what it means to be human. Making mistakes shapes us into the characters we will eventually become.

Why should this be so?  This is what is called the 'learning process', Through errors we learn, and gain experience. It is a domino effect, which has stood the test of time. Making errors should ensure that we do not make the same mistakes again, because we learn through our experience. Because of this, we then gain hindsight.

You notice how hindsight is not gained until we have made an error? In very rare cases hindsight seems to be given to those who seem wise beyond their years. A great example of this would be the Dalai Lama, whose reincarnated soul on the death of his body, seems to inhabit the body of a child [who shows remarkable hindsight about life, and who knows everything that the deceased Dalia Lama knew].

But, with the majority of us, mistakes are needed to help us learn and grow as human beings. If we continue to make errors - the same errors over and over - then we have not yet learned the lessons we where supposed to learn. We will continue making the same mistakes [almost as if we are caught in some kind of loop] until we learn, and then are able to move on.  Many of us become terribly frustrated by making errors, yet we cannot go through life error- free.

Indeed, the valuable lessons one learns through mistakes could, in the long run, save us heartache in the future. Human history records our every deed, and our every mistake as a legacy - for the good or bad - that we can look back on. In many instances, we may not like what history shows us, but again, this is necessary in order for us to grow, improve and learn the lessons we are supposed to learn while alive on this earth.

For those who do not learn from their errors, they will continue to make them, as if they are caught in a loop.  For those of us who do learn from our mistakes, it is only then we gain experience and hindsight. How many times have you made an error only to say to yourself, I should have done it this way?  Or, I should have done it that way?  This is what we call hindsight, and it happens every time we make an error. We make a mistake we gain hindsight and experience, that is how it works.

The greatest recorder of our mistakes, both small and large, is history. History, for the good or bad, will show us - in stark and vivid detail - where we have done great good in the world, and where we have continued to make errors. We continue to fight wars upon wars upon wars, throughout the world... is this not the biggest error of all, by the human race, even after so many deaths?

In our personal lives, at home, or in work, we will make errors of judgement [in some cases catastrophic errors] and yet, we have to somehow overcome them, and begin again. Making mistakes helps us, in many ways, to become the people we can become in the future. Mistakes are a part of that learning process and, for the good or bad, history will record it all as our legacy.

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