The Worst Mistake

You read the title of this post and different things come to or cross your mind. Getting pregnant. Wasting several years in a relationship with the wrong person. Spending hard earned money on something frigging irrelevant. Letting down your childhood/best friend. Missing a rare opportunity. Making a promise you won't keep. Getting drunk. Giving out highly sensitive information about yourself. Becoming addicted, Having a one night stand, Not going after your dreams, Ignoring your health, Not making time for loved ones, Succumbing to a leisure and pleasure-filled lifestyle, Dating a married man, Having an abortion, Missing out on the big picture because you were too busy paying attention to irrelevant things, Not having a plan, Being too careful, Doing something you hate, Not saving for the rainy days, Having an inferiority complex, Pleasing everybody but yourself, Procrastination, Not being you...

The list goes on and on. 

Thing is, while all of the above mentioned are mistakes, one as bad as the other, none of them is as worse as not making a mistake at all. 

What is a mistake?. The dictionary defines a Mistake as "an act or judgement that is misguided or wrong." It also means to misunderstand or misinterpret. To choose badly or incorrectly in action, opinion, judgment, etc. A mistake is something incorrect or unfortunate that someone does. A wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention. 

We've all made a mistake or two or more at one time or the other in our lives. I have. Maybe I even have a list of mistakes I've made. There are people who beat themselves up after they realize they've made a mistake. Especially those ones they saw coming at the back of their mind but somehow got carried away or chose to ignore. In truth, nobody in their right mind wants to make a mistake. Nobody likes that feeling of regret. Nobody like the "had I known" phrase ringing in their head. But the thing is, how do we learn if we don't make mistakes?. Imagine a world without mistakes. It wouldn't be a world at all. Mistakes exist so we can learn, so we can be better next time. 

According to history, some of the great people who lived made mistakes. 

As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. He realized he wasn't doing something right and when he finally figured it out, he became the 16th President of the United States of America. 

Charles Darwin gave up a medical career and was told by his father, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs and rat catching." In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, "I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." Clearly, he evolved and learnt from the mistakes of his youth. 

Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded. He obviously got to the point where he realized that mistake he kept repeating and in time, from learning from his mistakes, he's now a notable name in the automobile industry. 

Mistakes are a part of life, It is one of the stepping stones needed to move on or up to the next level. Mistakes are vital in learning. Although, as much as we need mistakes to grow wiser, wouldn't be so wise repeating the same mistakes over and over. That would be stupidity. 

So, you still ask, whats the worst mistake?....The worst mistake is not making a mistake at all.