You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.
Mistakes often feel dangerous. Throughout human history, our errors have often been treated as dangerous for a variety of reasons:
Our vulnerability. We have limited and fragile support systems. When those systems fail, people often lose their lives.
Real dangers. Nature can be dangerous, and making mistakes can put us at the mercy of nature and its animal residents seeking a meal.
Ignorance. Many cultures scapegoate someone whenever there is a failure of some kind. Scapegoating can be serious and deadly.
Order. Many societies punish those who do not conform to the prevailing orthodoxy and treat difference and non-conformity as a mistake. Even our brains flash an error message whenever we go against prevailing social norms according to research published in the Spero Forum.
We have a history of handling mistakes and failure in an unpleasant way. Since each of us carries our human history with us, it can be a challenge to overcome the fear of making mistakes.If we can embrace the reality of mistakes, we can free ourselves to be more creative in our lives and dig up some interesting insights.
40 Things You Learn From Making Mistakes
