Make lots of mistakes - These were words from a senior lecturer on my friends first day at University, and I will always remember them. As a perfectionist, she never took the message to heart. Mistakes were bad, and something that she felt she should never be proud of. When she was younger she loved to be the know-it-all, who had an answer for everything. Looking back, she says it was because she lacked self-confidence. She was afraid of showing herself to be stupid, or inadequate. She was afraid of failure, ridicule, and rejection. It was easier to hide behind a façade, and pretend she had all the answers.
It takes a lot of courage to own up to your mistakes. Admitting you're wrong, or that someone else is doing better than you at something, takes serious balls! And she wasn't ready for that.
As she got older, she learned to accept that mistakes are not only a part of life but also the best way to learn. Sure, it can be incredibly painful to hear criticism, but if nobody tells you that you are doing it wrong, how do you set about doing it right?
You can approach a situation assuming you know all there is to know, but you won't learn anything. One of the most valuable life lessons I have learnt is that it's okay to make mistakes.
After all, babies learn how to walk by falling down and getting back up again. They try various ways of pulling themselves up and one day, they find their way!
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