Do not fear mistakes, there are none. I really like this thought. I think I really needed to hear it today. I know that I will need to hear it again (and again). The words are credited to Miles Davis. Who knows exactly what he said or meant; there does appear to be a bit of controversy around that. Regardless the message is powerful. Just do it!
Mistakes are nothing more than post-action hubris. Thinking that we know best, what the best path is, heck what any path is. Forgetting to pay a bill on time, bombing a final exam, hitting your thumb rather than the nail with your hammer. These scream out as mistakes. I would likely have to be in a really present gracious calm state to not see them as such. But they are just pivot points, forks, diversion gates between what came before and the myriad possibilities afterwards.
It’s hard not to think of a “misplaced” stroke on a canvas or dumping the entire jar of salt into the soup kettle as anything other than a mistake. But why not try? Why not reset expectations or better yet have none? Treat everything as a gift, as a wonder, as infinite potential. The soup probably still won’t be edible, but maybe go out to dinner with a friend instead.
I am talking to myself more on this piece than to likely anyone else who might read it. I have always been terrified of making mistakes. What a bizarre fear built on a framework of half-truths and conjecture. If you are still breathing it mustn’t have been that big of a mistake anyway.
Another way to look at it is through the lens of sports. You are either playing offense or playing defense, but not both. The surest way to lose a game, even one that you are ahead in, is to be too cautious, too defensive, to play to not lose rather than to win. We’ll set aside for the moment whether there really is any losing or winning away, but the point is to change reference, change mindsets. Kobe Bryant missed the most shots in an NBA career but hopefully Lebron James will still be able to “catch him”.
To go further with the sports analogies, making a free throw is more mental than physical. You must not think, not just not fear making a mistake, but really be in a meditative state. It’s a mental exercise of not thinking and just letting the muscle memory and confidence and courage and the grace and magic flow through the net. I doubt I ever averaged better than about 65% from the line, so maybe I’m not the best spokesperson on the topic!
Boldly look for new opportunities. Courageously seek ways to grow and help and teach. Don’t fear failure, if you need to fear something, fear not making enough “mistakes.” Mistakes are great learning opportunities; it is much harder to learn and grow by only considering our “successes.”
Imagine how much “better” or “accomplished” we could be if we were not afraid of making mistakes. We have sticky post-it notes and scotchgard thanks to mistakes (not coincidentally both by 3M, a company that encourages employees to spend 15% of their time pursuing “innovative ideas that excite them”.
We need more mistakes, not fewer. Only then can we evolve and grow. To those for whom this is an exciting prospect, looking towards what could be gained not what might be lost, this becomes a virtual superpower. We are limited mostly by ourselves and our fears and not by others or even nature.