“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Mistakes are an essential part of learning for every living being. Humans and animals make mistakes but animals learn quickly from their mistakes, else they cannot survive. It is said even the gods make mistakes. We, are after all humans.
To make progress we have to keep doing different, new things. Most of these new things start with the right intent but end up with a result that we did not expect, often causing disappointment. We don’t do things because we want to make mistakes.
If we were to change these unexpected results, into natural feedback mechanisms they could be telling us – “This strategy did not work! Try another”. This is one positive way of looking at mistakes and learning.
Celebrate some mistakes: Thomas Alva Edison once said that he met with 10,000 failures before he could actually make an electric bulb. He did not see them as failures but as 10,000 different ways of “How not to make a bulb”. Encourage children to see mistakes as useful feedback and as an important step to overcome challenges, new insights and improved understanding.
When mistakes happen during an experiment / life event, a crucial learning point is arrived at. If we don’t make the failure a learning point, fear of failure can set in. For e.g. if we keep telling children that they could fall of a horse and break a bone, they will never try to get on it in the first place. It is important that they know how to navigate on a horse – while galloping and trotting.
Experts we see in our lives and try to emulate, have made many mistakes and written books about them. We can learn from their mistakes too. We have a short life to make all mistakes and learn from our own.
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book ‘The Outliers’ says 10,000 hours of work leads to perfection. That means we will keep making mistakes until we get to the 10,000th hour. To get to perfection sooner – we have to learn from our mistakes.
We have to help our children see opportunities from the mistakes they make. Let’s not project mistakes made by kids, a reflection of their personal (in)ability to learn something. This negative feeling is caused by us, the adults, who point out mistakes. We are quick to express our disapproval and unhappiness at the results! We seldom motivate children positively. We do not explain that, a mistake is a learning opportunity.
Generally, children won’t start until they know/ have the assurance that what they are doing is going to be correct. The chances that a child gets everything right the first time is low. And if it is high then the level of challenge may be too low.
As a practice for children in school – we should have a “Personal Best” card, instead of a competitive comparison with others. This idea is not unique and is followed in sports by coaches. It will be easier for children to beat personal best records and thereby improve. The previous best is then not seen as a mistake but as a positive bench mark to beat. Parents can also have these kind of cards at home for some important things that you want children to do. Create a “Personal Best” card for 6-8 things for a kid and help the child to improve.
In conclusion – Mistakes happen all over. Those who make an effort to learn benefit from it. Children Shouldn’t be scared of mistakes and therefore fail to even try. Parents and teachers – try and change how you measure performance and thereby help children improve.
Vish Sivaswamy
Feeding the mind with positives at all times will eventually lead to no space in the mind for negativity. You have always done it. Thank you.
Feeding positives to the mind at all times leaves no room for negativity. It also makes us look at mistakes as learning opportunities. An excellent thought on viewing mistakes.
Superb post and good learning for every parent and Teacher!!!
Respected Sir,
Every child has a potential to excel in some field and his/her hidden talents are to be identified. We, the adults should make efforts to give him/her ample opportunities to excel in his field of interest. And…..while the child works on his/her field of interest, they might make mistakes and…. it is the duty of the parents and teachers to use these mistakes as the guidelines to help her/him out. Lets make them feel comfortable in overcoming the mistakes.
At “no” point in time, the child should be discouraged, because chances are there that he/she not only would loose interest in that particular field, but…. he might also loose interest in discovering many of his potential strengths. And….. it would be a huge loss in their life.
(Example – If Sachin Tendulkar would not have been encouraged by his first coach Mr Ramakant Achrekar, then the world cricket might have lost the opportunity have seen an all time great that India has ever produced.)
I strongly believe that each and every child is special and possess some qualities in her/him to excel and must be given enough opportunity to excel.
Warm regards.
Many discoveries have come into this world because scientists noticed that one of their mistakes had turned into a breakthrough. Their ‘‘success from failure’’ stories indicate not only that they were keen observers but also that they were conducting a lot of experiments ceaselessly. As Louis Pasteur puts it, “Le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés” – Fortune favours the trained/prepared mind. Chance favours those who do lots of experiments and then pay very close attention when something unexpected happens.