Why I love my mistakes
First and foremost, I do make mistakes … all the time! A lot of people that read my blog and know me personally might think that I think otherwise. I tend to love to rant and rave, and rant more than rave. I also have a lot of confidence in my work and what I do. You may assume I proclaim to know all, but I don’t. As much as I call out other designs or designers, the truth is that I have a whole stockpile of work I am not proud of, embarrassed of more than likely. But it is my mistakes I treasure over all else; not my best work or best moments. I feel as though I’ve been successful in much of what I’ve done, and not despites my mistakes but because of them. It isn’t the mistake itself I cherish, but it is the joy of pin-pointing it as the turning point to a successful moment!
It is within my mistakes that I really learn and grow professionally and personally. But it isn’t the making of mistakes and learning from them that has made me successful – it is knowing that I can and thus not being afraid to make mistakes that is the key.
I am a big proponent of fate (the idea that everything happens for a reason); knowing, or believing, that there is something equally better (than the worst) on the other side of any situation is typically the best thing to help get through any situation. I don’t want to be a Monday downer and have no real bad life breaking news to report myself – I just had some drunken insight over the weekend that got me thinking and in turn got me blogging.
Don’t be afraid to making mistakes; don’t seek them out but embrace them when they happen and look for them to be the turning point to something great. They say “two wrongs don’t make a right” – sometimes they do, when you’ve learned from those two wrongs to create the right. Greatness is many things; however, it is often the summation of mistakes whose parts are the catalyst for something new, something great.
I hate when I make a mistake, but love looking back at the mistakes that have made me.
- June 23rd, 2008
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Great rant. When you realize you’ve made a mistake you’ve also consciously changed your way of thinking. There’s this weird vulnerable state you’re in, and when you can turn that into a life lesson then it really wasn’t a mistake at all.
Making mistakes is part of learning how to solve problems, so I embrace mistakes early on and expect them. If you are ready and aware, then hopefully people won’t be too hard on you when you finally do make a mistake.
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