How Making Mistakes Will Save Your Life
Why you shouldn’t try to be perfect
Feeling lost is something quite common when it comes to the ages of 18–25. I don’t know if that’s because that is the period of our lives when we start to feel the pressure of being responsible for more than a case of colorful pencils or if we become aware of the world itself and how it works.
Nevertheless, if you are or have been in between those ages… You know what I’m talking about.
When you are doing something so difficult that just makes you want to cry. You stop, take a deep breathe and think to yourself: “Why am I doing this?”. We can’t help but wonder if we can do this and if it is worth completing. Be that as it may, this is the period of life when we all make mistakes that are probably irreversible.
If you are between these ages you either already made a mistake like that or will and if you’re older, I’m sure you can recall a mistake you made that probably brought you to where you are now. Now don’t get me wrong, mistakes aren’t always bad. Sometimes, mistakes can save your life and help you flourish. You just have to be careful and select the mistakes you can make.
You can’t go through life numb. Being aware of your life as a whole is an important quality in anyone’s life.
What do I mean by that?
Well, I think you know that you can’t know what mistakes you will make and the mistakes you already made (especially if they haven’t given you any repercussions). What you can do, however, is to select what mistakes you can allow yourself to make. Think of it as “fucking up selectively”. Look at your life and evaluate the situations and decide whether or not you can make a mistake in that particular area you are thinking about right now (Yes, I know you have already thought of something).
Because sometimes all you need to do is stop and think. Look at your life and then look at the different areas of your life separately.
Think about your job and how you want your career to look like in 10 years. Think about your academic course and whether or not you want/need more. Think about your parents and how you are making them feel.
Think about how you feel and what is making you feel it.
Think about your relationship’s effects on your behavior, select the people you should or shouldn’t hang out with, select your partner.
Look. No one can make simple math like 6x6 when they’re going 200km/h on they’re little Toyota Prius. Then why would anyone expect you to be able to think about anything other than what is stressing you out? How can you think about your partner/job/degree when everything else in your life is going 200km/h?
Stop.
Take a week off. Take a day off if you can’t do more. If you don’t, all you are doing is not making yourself look stronger in everyone’s eyes. All you will be doing is building up everyone’s expectations of you and what you can endure. Why would you want to be on a pedestal?
When you are on a pedestal, all you do that isn’t perfect will always be regarded as insufficient.
