Mistakes

Have you ever done or felt like doing something that comes across as stupid, something that the wiser would advise against, something that may not go as planned, something that may backfire, something we refer to as “a mistake”?

What is a mistake? A mistake, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is an act or judgement which is wrong or misguided. In short, a bad judgement. But, everyone makes mistakes at some point or the other in their lives. Why? Is it important to make mistakes? Yes, it is very important to make mistakes, falter at a crucial juncture, take erroneous decisions. It helps, it helps you grow, it helps you evolve and gain experience. It is often said that good judgement comes from experience and often experience comes from bad judgement.

The thing about mistakes is that even if you know something is a mistake, you make it anyway. There are sometimes in life where you know it is a mistake and are advised against, yet you go ahead with it, without thinking of the consequences. Many a times in life, there are certain things which seem a mistake but you don’t really know if it’s a mistake. There is only one way to find it out and that is, by making the mistake. Years down the line, you’ll probably look back upon it as a mistake but the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake. Because then, you’ll never know if it was a mistake and all left with you would be regret, the regret of not believing in it, the regret of not knowing where it would lead to, the regret of chickening out.

Life is just like a dark road, you never really know what lies straight ahead. You just have to trust your judgement and keep driving. It doesn’t really matter even if you hit a bump, because then you would be careful. If you keep driving smoothly and never hit the bump, you’ll never know the way to overcome it. You have to keep driving looking straight in the dark but never fearing the obstacle ahead. There is only one way to live life, to live it fearlessly and remember that the best decisions are almost always the ones which don’t make any sense at all. All you have to do is follow it, back it and as they say, take a leap of faith…