Mistakes are a reality, they happen, no doubt about it; but they bring with them a penalty and there are no two opinions about it as well.
The billion dollar question is whether we should "be open to mistakes and learn from them" or "just try to avoid mistakes".
The significance of the question is, implications of embracing any of the approach. Here, it is important to acknowledge that it's just not an action that can be a mistake, but an act of inaction can be an equally significant mistake.
I think the 3 words are highly interrelated - risks, experiments and mistakes. There are times when you know that a particular action is a definite mistake, there are times when you know that a particular action can turn out to be a mistake or may be not (that's a risk), there are times you have no clue if an act is a mistake or not (that's an experiment) and then, there are times when you just know it's not a mistake and it turns out to be a mistake (well, that's just a mistake).
If we have an approach of "just avoid mistakes", essentially we are saying that we are not open to risks and experiments and if we have an approach of "open to mistakes", then we might just develop an attitude of casualness.
A very important aspect here is to understand the "scale of the penalty" and "impact zone" of a mistake. It is quite important to evaluate our actions and categorise them as risk/no-risk or experiments and also analyse the scale of penalty or gain that they might bring, which basically means that we should know/understand the situation really well.
There are multiple sayings around this aspect which you might have heard - "Stay hungry, Stay foolish", "Fail fast", "Learn from other's mistakes", etc. I just wish that people understand the nuances of mistakes and the different approaches, at least I wish that i understood them way earlier than now.
It's still for an individual to ponder over this and understand the implications of the approaches, risk, experiment and mistakes.
After a bit of thought and some experience of life, I think I will recommend the below:
Understand the situation/circumstances, size up the scale of gain/penalty and impact zone, definitely avoid mistakes if they can be catastrophic. Else, it's upto an individual to evaluate and decide whether or not to risk or experiment. But, definitely keep taking actions.
My personal journey, so far, has been to gradually move from "not understanding the situation" to be able to identify and undergo "risk" and "experiment" - resulting in severe penalties, at times and healthy gains, few other times. I think this blog might make me more aware about my actions and more keen/watchful about my approach towards "risks, experiments and mistakes".
I just hope somebody reading the blog benefits from this. Just understand, there is no "Ctrl + Z" in life.
The billion dollar question is whether we should "be open to mistakes and learn from them" or "just try to avoid mistakes".
The significance of the question is, implications of embracing any of the approach. Here, it is important to acknowledge that it's just not an action that can be a mistake, but an act of inaction can be an equally significant mistake.
I think the 3 words are highly interrelated - risks, experiments and mistakes. There are times when you know that a particular action is a definite mistake, there are times when you know that a particular action can turn out to be a mistake or may be not (that's a risk), there are times you have no clue if an act is a mistake or not (that's an experiment) and then, there are times when you just know it's not a mistake and it turns out to be a mistake (well, that's just a mistake).
If we have an approach of "just avoid mistakes", essentially we are saying that we are not open to risks and experiments and if we have an approach of "open to mistakes", then we might just develop an attitude of casualness.
A very important aspect here is to understand the "scale of the penalty" and "impact zone" of a mistake. It is quite important to evaluate our actions and categorise them as risk/no-risk or experiments and also analyse the scale of penalty or gain that they might bring, which basically means that we should know/understand the situation really well.
There are multiple sayings around this aspect which you might have heard - "Stay hungry, Stay foolish", "Fail fast", "Learn from other's mistakes", etc. I just wish that people understand the nuances of mistakes and the different approaches, at least I wish that i understood them way earlier than now.
It's still for an individual to ponder over this and understand the implications of the approaches, risk, experiment and mistakes.
After a bit of thought and some experience of life, I think I will recommend the below:
Understand the situation/circumstances, size up the scale of gain/penalty and impact zone, definitely avoid mistakes if they can be catastrophic. Else, it's upto an individual to evaluate and decide whether or not to risk or experiment. But, definitely keep taking actions.
My personal journey, so far, has been to gradually move from "not understanding the situation" to be able to identify and undergo "risk" and "experiment" - resulting in severe penalties, at times and healthy gains, few other times. I think this blog might make me more aware about my actions and more keen/watchful about my approach towards "risks, experiments and mistakes".
I just hope somebody reading the blog benefits from this. Just understand, there is no "Ctrl + Z" in life.
