We will always be subject to the fallibility of the human condition that causes us to make mistakes. Despite our most sincere aspirations and endeavors to achieve perfection, circumstances unfailingly prove that human beings are incurably flawed. Some of us attempt to cope with our unavoidable imperfections by surrendering entirely to weakness with a mindset of apathetic withdrawal, while others refuse to accept defeat, and continuously struggle against the reality of the human condition in a defiant, yet futile pursuit of perfection. It is difficult for many people to accept the distasteful reality of imperfection without a fight, and though there is no likely escape from some degree of human error, there is definite value in fighting our weaknesses with incessant resolve. No, none of us in our lifetimes are likely to achieve perfection, but we can certainly become more perfect every day.

Coming to Terms with Mistakes
It is commonplace in many cultures to look negatively on mistakes and those who make them, but in competitive societies this is especially true. Few people cheer the football player who fumbles the ball on the final decisive play, the businessman who is stranded and out of gas on the side of the road, or the parent who wakes up late after forgetting to set the alarm clock. We all make mistakes like these from time to time, and while we may prefer to believe that we should be immune to such blunders, we all make mistakes of various kinds; and we will do so with more frequency than most of us would like to admit. It is rarely pleasant or convenient to err, but it is an inevitable part of daily life – as unavoidable as hunger, headaches, or occasional illnesses. None of these things are pleasant, but they happen whether we like them or not. With the knowledge that we cannot avoid them, we should not punish ourselves or become angry about making mistakes, but we should make a concerted effort to learn from them.

Learning from Mistakes
The only failure in making mistakes is the failure to learn a lesson. Mistakes should not be despised, neither should they be ignored, but rather, they should be the subject of our learning. If we are able to learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves with every error we make, then our mistakes can become tools of our betterment. While we will never be able to live our lives in the absence of error, we can learn to make our mistakes smaller and less significant, rather than larger and more consequential.

Ignoring Our Mistakes
Ignoring our mistakes is a mistake in itself, which can lead to serious and cumulative problems in our lives. By merely giving in to our weaknesses, we deny ourselves of essential learning that helps us to avoid them in the future. It is true that we will always make mistakes, but that does not mean that we must repeat the same mistakes over and over. While we all make mistakes, they are by degrees. Ignoring, or failing to address our mistakes makes us more likely to repeat even our most serious blunders.

Dwelling On Our Mistakes
Feeling regret and remorse is beneficial to the point that it causes us to recognize our mistakes and change our behaviors, but suffering prolonged torment for mistakes does little, if anything to improve our lives. Pain is necessary in the process of change, but when pain is for the sake of pain alone, it does not change us for good, but rather hinders our ability to move beyond our mistakes. It is important to recognize the reality of our mistakes, to feel the pain of their consequences, and then to move on from both our mistakes and the pain that is associated with them. Above all, we must always learn from our mistakes in ways that make us less likely to repeat them in the future.

Using a Compass
There is nothing more important about mistakes than our ability to learn from them. Becoming better people – not perfect people, but good people – is dependent on our ability to utilize our internal compasses. We are all guided by our feelings, and by what we understand to be right and wrong, as well as good and bad. When we make mistakes in life, our courses veer from comfortable ways into uncertainty, embarrassment, sorrow and regret. These feelings act as our compasses and our guides. They indicate times when we stray from correct courses, and need to bring ourselves back in line with where we want to go. Our feelings, as compasses for our actions, make it clear where we have gone wrong, and help us to determine the appropriate actions needed to right ourselves.

Gaining Wisdom from Mistakes
Once we have listened to our feelings and learned from our compasses, we are able to correct our courses and head steadily toward our destinations. It is never pleasant to admit that we have strayed from our courses as we learn of our mistakes, but ignoring our situations only takes us further from where we want to go. It is necessary to feel discomfort and grief in order to deal with the consequences of our mistakes, but once we have tended to our errors and learned from them, there is no further reason for sorrow, as the wisdom gained from the experience will help us to avoid similar errors in the future.

In every case, the point of our mistakes is to learn from them. Mistakes of human error are unavoidable, but mistakes of human foolishness are not. If we fail to learn from our mistakes, just as if we fail to learn from the events of history, we are doomed to repeat them. It is not necessary or possible to be perfect, but we can be more perfect every day by committing ourselves to learn a lesson from every mistake we make.

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