Mistakes

Blessed are those who don’t see a mistake as a mistake! However, it is hard not to see your own mistake. Outwardly you may justify yourself or prove your innocence to someone else, but a mistake pricks your conscience. Do not justify yourself. Instead, feel the prick of the mistake. That very pinch will take you out of the mistake.

While pointing out a mistake to someone, do you consider him as separate from you and go on pointing out his error or do you make him feel a part of you? When you point out a mistake to someone, does it make him more stressed, or does it create or awareness in that person?  Often you do not point out someone’s mistake when it is required. Pointing out a mistake without due consideration to time and place is also a mistake.

When you keep doing the same mistake over and over, it a BIG mistake. A mistake simply means you have missed taking a lesson that has come your way. Do no lament over your mistake. Just take the lesson from it. You will not be judged by your mistakes, but by your virtues.

Wise is the one who learns from other’s mistakes. Less wise is the one who learns from one’s own mistakes. The fool keeps making the same mistakes again and again and never learns from them.

Mistakes happen all the time. Often you get irritated by mistakes and you want to correct them, but how many can you correct? You correct others’ mistakes for two reasons. The first is when you correct someone for their own sake, so that they can grow, and not because it bothers you. Correcting mistakes for the first reason – when the mistake bothers you – does not work.

To correct mistakes, you need both authority and love. Authority and love seem to be contradictory but in reality they are not. Authority without love is stifling and does not work, while love without authority is shallow. You need both but they need to be in the right combination so that you can be successful in correcting others mistakes. This can happen only if you are totally dispassionate and centered.

Do not tell a person about a mistake that he already knows he has made. What is the use of pointing out a mistake that he knows he has committed? By doing this, you will only make the person feel more guilty, defensive or resentful and this only creates more distance.

Before pointing out a person’s mistake, see whether your comments will help to improve the situation, foster love, or bring harmony. A magnanimous person does not point out the mistakes of others and make them feel guilty. Instead, they correct others’ mistakes with compassion and care, not through words but through their attitude.

Often, in establishing your righteousness, you are insensitive to the feelings of others. When someone is hurt, arguing with them and establishing your righteousness will be in vain. By simply saying ‘sorry’ you can uplift the other person and take away the bitterness. In many situations saying ‘sorry’ is better than establishing righteousness. It can’t avert much unpleasantness.

‘Sorry’ is a word of five letters, that when said sincerely, can remove anger, guilt, hatred and distance. Many people feel pride in hearing ‘sorry’ from others. It boosts their ego. But when you say ‘sorry’ to a wise man, it evokes compassion. A mistake is part of an unconscious mind. An unconscious mind cannot do right while a conscious mind can do no wrong.