Each day is a fresh day—look at it with hope and enthusiasm. Yesterday is over. Why not remove the garbage from your mind?
Only gods are infallible. Human beings, however intelligent, are liable to err. So we should learn to take mistakes in our stride and should not allow them to overwhelm us.
Mistakes are essential to progress. G.B. Shaw once said, “Man learns to skate by staggering, making a fool of himself. Indeed, he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.” From cave-life to modern civilised life is a story of trial and error. The people in the preceding ages, undaunted by the fear of mistakes, made inventions and discoveries that constitute the glory of modern civilisation.
- Each time Nimmi, Kamla’s 14-year old daughter, expresses her desire to prepare vegetables, her mother prevents her by saying, “You will spoil it.” Kamla’s does not realise that her daughter cannot become expert in cooking without spoiling vegetables or burning a loaf. Parents should show tolerance when their children make mistakes. They should not resort to frequent snubbing to prevent the child from making mistakes—Excessive scolding serves no useful purpose. It shatters the child’s confidence and makes him peevish.
Some persons do not take up a job on the plea that there are already superior persons in the profession. They conclude that the presence of the superior persons will spell their failure. They do not pause for a moment to think that the superior persons did not achieve perfection in their skill overnight. They, too, had to pass through a series of trials and errors before they could attain their present enviable positions.
If you have any plan to implement, do not be afraid of discussing it with your friends. If they point out any defects in your plan, you should not take it as jealousy on their part. Weigh their opinions objectively. It is quite possible that their advice may make your plan still better.
If you make a mistake, have the moral courage to acknowledge it and put it right. Mistakes do little harm if they are acknowledged and corrected without delay. Let mistakes remain unattended and they wil do untold harm to the task in hand and your reputation. Concealment of an error is no less undesirable. In case you camouflage your mistakes, you will have to resort to desperate lying to make your position invulnerable. When your lies are known to others which is only a matter of time, your dignity will be injured even more.
Nobody despises a person who has the moral courage to admit that he is wrong and is immediately prepared to rectify the error. What can you say to a person who candidly admits, “I beg your pardon. You are right, I misunderstood you. Please let me set the matter right.”
It is bad to shift responsibility on to others for your own failures. Among students this tendency is often very marked. When they fail in an examination, they put the blame either on the teacher for his inefficient teaching or the fate. They never admit that they failed for lack of preparation. Some bosses make their subordinates scapegoats when their plans prove a flop. But when these succeed they pat only themselves and deny any credit to the subordinates. When we want to take credit for the success of a thing, we ought to bear responsibility for its miscarriage, too. To disown responsibility for failures is cowardice.
Brooding over past mistakes cripples positive thinking and creates unnecessary tension in the mind. You will do well to clear out the garbage of past mistakes from your mind. Begin next day’s work with a fresh mind and vigour. You will surely find the way to success and happiness smooth.
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