Every Mistake I've Made

Everyone makes mistakes; unfortunately this doesn’t make it any easier to forgive. I myself, am no stranger to mistakes, from spelling errors, to giving wrong change, to a moment of uncensored truth, to belligerent drunkard mistakes, we’ve all been there.

While some mistakes can be classed as being more serious than others, it is important it remember that mistakes do happen.

There are two general types of mistakes.

1. Mistakes that you have no idea you made, and
2. Mistakes that you knowingly make, in hopes that you will get away with it.

This is the essential difference between why some mistakes are forgiven and others are not. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, most of the time, and some people even call me a push over.

I understand that people make mistakes and I’m not the kind of person that even needs an apology to forgive and forget, but, people should be aware of their wrongs in order to correct themselves. It is healthy for a person to make a mistake and learn from it. What seems to be the norm, is the higher the punishment the more a person will not repeat the mistake. You can see examples of this everywhere, not just in the workplace. Criminal Law, Traffic Regulations, In Relationships, At Home. We were taught from a very young age, when you do something wrong you are punished, and that is how we learn from our mistakes.

The cycles goes: Error – Punishment – Lesson Learnt. But what if we could change this cycle, to replace punishment with correction.

In the book, “How To Win Friends And Influence People”, Dale Carnegie tells a story of a past US president (I don’t remember which), who went flying. The mechanic that day, accidentally put the wrong fuel in the airplane, causing the plane to come crashing down in mid-flight.

Can you imagine how terrible the mechanic would have felt? The President walked up to the mechanic, and told him to prepare another airplane for him to fly the very next day. Of course, it was smooth flying the next day, because the mechanic was given the opportunity to redeem himself, he learnt a lesson, without punishment, but instead with the opportunity to correct his errors.

This way of thinking is essential for a better society of individuals. Again, not just in the workplace or laws, but in the home, it is important to teach this kind of thinking form a young age. I think it’s bad enough that people have to already live with the mistakes they made, to add punishment on top of that, is over kill.

I’m not saying no to any kind of punishment ever. What I’m saying is to try correcting a mistake before punishing.