We are all fallible, delicately imperfect, but unique in our essence and in our personal stories. That is why it is very good and necessary to accept every mistake made without falling into perpetual grievance, but to understand what we should not do, what path we would not take and which people should stay away from us.
Woody Allen once said in one of his films, “I don’t regret what I’ve done with my life, but I’d actually like to be someone else. “This ironic phrase sums up a concrete fact very well: the mistakes we make throughout our lives hurt us and compromise our dignity so deeply that we would often like to have a “reboot. “
“Success goes from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. Winston Churchill?”
However, we people are not machines, and therein lies our greatness, in that magic inscribed in our DNA, which allows us to learn mistakes to overcome ourselves as a species and survive in this complex world, to live forward, but also to change and learn from every bad choice or every bad deed; it’s like pausing halfway to learn how to get better every day.
Not accepting the mistake, not accepting it, or clinging to the guilt that bleeds us out and keeps us tied to the past means preventing the growth that everyone must assume at any age and at any time in life.
Guilt and repentance take many forms, form great shadows and weave in our mind very thick spider webs that get in our way for a while, concrete facts such as a relationship with the wrong person, a careless decision at work, an accidental oversight, a Promise, a word or a bad deed, is to look in a mirror, without filters, without anesthesia and with an open wound , that is, when we are aware of the cracks in our supposed maturity, we must collect the pieces. of our dignity and correct what is wrong.
On the other hand, an interesting study published in the journal ‘Cognitive Psychology’ reports a fact that invites them to think deeply, younger people often complain about the many mistakes they have made throughout their lives, sometimes a simple conversation with a person between the two. The age of 20 and 45 is enough to tell us, one by one, every bad decision, every person who regrets letting him into his life or every bad decision he has made. : helps us decide better, to more precisely orient our personal compass.
However, the real problem arises with the elderly population, when the person reaches the age of 70, begins to regret the things he did not do, the missed opportunities, the decisions he did not make for lack of courage. It must be noted that the worst repentance is a non-life. Understand that many of our supposed mistakes, those whose consequences were neither fatal nor extremely unfavorable, are our “experienceal baggage”, our inheritance of life, the cracks through which light penetrates wisdom.
A mistake implies, above all, an acceptance of responsibility. It is something that most of us already know, of that there is no doubt; However, not everyone is in a position to take this important and dignified step. If we accept responsibility for our mistakes, the so-called “primary repair” will occur in psychology, that is, we can end a stormy relationship, end a failed project. or even apologize for the harm done to others.
“Mistakes are the basis of human thought. If we were given the ability to make mistakes, it was for a very specific reason: to be better, Lewis Thomas?
We will now talk about something much more delicate, more intimate and complex. Secondary repair – this concerns us; Precisely we must sew every stain of our self-esteem, every fiber ripped from our self-image, where resentments are housed, the weight of disappointments, so as not to end up closing the door of our hearts and the window of new opportunities. .
An article published in the magazine? Personality and social psychology? Remember a fact that many of us have lived through. Sometimes we punish ourselves with the following phrase:? But how could I be so naive at that age and still make those mistakes?
The belief that age and experience immunize us against mistakes is a myth, letting go and assuming a concrete and important fact: being alive is accepting changes and challenges, allowing us to meet new people, and doing different things every day. mistakes, in certain situations, are part of our learning process; is one more element in our growth. Don’t refuse to experiment so as not to anchor on the island of sorrow and fear. To think that it is better to stay as I am is limited to breathing and existing, but not live.
Images courtesy of Miss Led.