Mistakes are Part of the Dues One Pays for a Full Life

Are you a human being? Have you been autonomous before? Have you made decisions, initiated actions, and thought about choices before? Then congratulations. You have made mistakes, you have been wrong, and you have caused grievances. No one is perfect in this life, and we are more than capable of being wrong. It is how we choose to behave when confronted with our errors that determine our character. Admittance of wrongdoing takes courage and shows humility, but unfortunately, we live in a day and age where people do not like to be confronted with their faux pas. We want to hold others accountable and culpable for our faults, so that being wrong doesn’t rely with us. But when you can’t admit fault, even when confronted with new information or overwhelming evidence, you cease to grow as a person. I have a lot of respect for the person who can admit they were wrong and chooses to turn an experience into a learning opportunity, than to the person who denies all wrongdoing and instead doubles down or makes excuses for why something is not actually their fault.

I always say that the strongest foundation to my relationship has been communication and expressions of my feelings and thoughts when certain situations arise. Yes, this even means a mea culpa, or when something is my fault. Perhaps I didn’t even mean to cause my partner distress, but something I did happened to inflict harm or cause pain anyway. It is my responsibility as his loving wife to apologize, because at the end of the day he is the only person who gets to decide if something I did or said hurt him. I never want to be the reason my partner is upset, and therefore will always acquiesce to my faults and apologize for my wrongdoings and so will he. Admitting to your mistakes is a sign of growth and maturity, and refusing to acknowledge that you may be the one in the wrong shows a stunted mind and under-developed emotions. No one is above being able to learn and grow from prior errors, but choosing to bury your head in the sand accomplishes nothing but ignorance.

It’s really unfortunate that nowadays we live in such a technologically prevalent society, that people will jump down one another’s throats on social media, or shove a camera in someone’s face, all to prove that they are right. One of the best examples of this is all of the ‘Cart Narc’ videos on youtube and Instagram. Whenever someone is confronted with simply not returning the cart to the cart corral, 99% of the time they begin screaming at the person pointing it out, throwing a tantrum and throwing out excuses, and wasting more time than if they had taken the few seconds to return a cart anyway. Especially if the cart is blocking handicap parking access or a cart rolls away and causes damage to someone else’s vehicle. People hate being confronted with their laziness and ineptitude, and will scream obscenities and slurs instead of admitting fault. Personal accountable is such a declining notion in society, and I just don’t understand when it became acceptable to be so stubborn in your beliefs and emotions, that you begin to ignore common sense and human decency.

I have been wrong a thousand plus times in my life. Mostly just simplistic and tiny mistakes, but there were a few that skirted catastrophe as well. I learned from all of those experiences to help turn each of those into lessons I can grow from. The situations that have always been the hardest have been the times when my mistakes impacted other people. Perhaps it is the Jew Guilt I am forever plagued with, but it would eat me alive to continue living my life without letting them know how sorry I am and how I can make things right. There seems to be such bragging rights lately with people claiming to be ‘unapologetic’ for how they live their life, and never going out on a limb to say that they’re sorry. While I am all about freedom of choice and being strong and independent, it’s perfectly okay to sometimes be apologetic. Being sorry about something is not a sign of weakness, but actually takes courage to be a big enough person to realize we aren’t always right.

Remember, no one wants to enmesh themselves in a relationship, whether platonic or romantic, with a person that can never admit fault or understand that sometimes they may be wrong. The beautiful thing about life is the adaptability to always be learning and growing as a person, and thus creating an endless possibility to keep improving upon ourselves. What a beautiful thing to be able to activate self-reflection and explore within ourselves to see all the ways in which we can improve our lives and grow as human beings. I am sure that I will be wrong plenty more times in my life, but I will never be above understanding when I am wrong in certain situations. People most often learn the most from their failures, in order to achieve their greatest successes. Admitting when you are wrong or made an error, keeps you from making that same mistake again, and acknowledging this face can help you flourish into something better than you were before. Anyone can run from their mistakes, but the true leaders and game-changers of the worlds are the ones who can admit when they are wrong, learn from these mistakes, and cultivate better practices going forward. Don’t let a mistake become a missed opportunity.