A short rant about making mistakes

I had one of those moments this week where I had to check myself.

I found that I’d made a mistake and double booked myself for some work, because I hadn’t put the first thing in my diary. It was an easy mistake to make, because I AM A HUMAN BEING AND NOT A ROBOT.

I felt really bad about it though, and started thinking ‘what can I say? How can I get out of it??’ I felt like I needed an excuse for being so stupid. Maybe I could wait until nearer the time and then come up with some kind of mystery illness?

what to do if you make a mistake

Me.

And then I remembered that bit about BEING A HUMAN BEING.

Oh yeah.

So I emailed the person relating to the thing that had to come second and apologised, and that was that.

So why in my head was it such a big thing? Is it just me that feels so bad about making mistakes? Why do we feel we have to be perfect, when really we should just be honest?

I’ve always been the same. I will always remember one AWFUL moment at school when I was about 12 years old. I’d genuinely forgotten to do some French homework, which never happened as I’m a total square, but for some reason my French teacher chose to make an example of me and called me out to the front of the class. I felt so bad about my mistake though that I just burst into tears. The teacher looked completely unprepared for this, and quickly bustled me back to my seat.

No wonder I didn’t have many friends.

I feel like if EVERYONE just held their hands up more often and said ‘Oh yeah, sorry, that was a mistake, my bad’, that the whole world would be a much more straightforward place. If we just accepted too that human beings DO make mistakes, and didn’t get so pissed off all the time about things that don’t actually matter, then people would feel far more comfortable about coming clean. We’d all just chill out a bit wouldn’t we? And it would REVOLUTIONISE politics.

I thought I might turn this post into a bit of a confessional. Leave a comment telling me about a mistake you’ve made recently and we will celebrate together the fact that we are human, and not 100% perfect all of the time.

And hey, if no one leaves a comment then so what? I misjudged it – I made a mistake. Get over it.

Photo – studiostoks/shutterstock

 

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8 Comments

  1. Abbie
    6 May, 2017 / 3:23 pm

    I love this post! I react in exactly the same way and also try to adopt the ‘get over it’ view, there are more important things to worry about in life X

  2. Carina
    6 May, 2017 / 11:21 pm

    There is nobody , but NObody, who has not made a mistake and yes- rather than get grouchy, make excuses and try and worm out of it, just acknowledge that you, a normal human being, has made a mistake. Some mistakes are bigger than others, obviously, but unless you live in a silent empty vacuum with no life, you are going to make them. We need to go easy on ourselves – some of us have flustered brains and lots to remember so mistakes are inevitable now and then. Can’t think of a specific one I have made recently but there will have been some – just clearly not significant enough to recall – as you say – get over it :)

  3. Vicky
    7 May, 2017 / 9:24 am

    Good post. I had a Dr make the most horrific mistake and phone me up this week to say sorry with bad results that would have had horrendous implications. I went to the hospital the next day only to realize that someone had dictated the lab results wrong. I could see it for myself too on the computer. They have no idea how much I cried, couldn’t sleep and got into a highly anxious state. However as soon as I found out it was an error, right there in my head instead of getting mad I just thought anyone can make a mistake. Overworked, unpaid NHS staff doing their best. My head was fuzzy and I’m still anxious until all tests are complete, but for now it’s all looking good. Some mistakes can have awful knock on effects for other people, but at the end of the day we are all human and no-one is perfect.

  4. Oli Marshall
    7 May, 2017 / 10:51 am

    I wonder whether you had a need to write this post because you still feel a little bit bad. IT’S OK. Forgetting/double booking happens to ALL OF US. Even to us who who have a CALENDAR attached in the kitchen at eye sight level, who have a DAY PLANNER AND a PHONE. REMINDER :). I am a type of person JUST like yourself who, when forgets, feels like letting someone down is THE WORST THING in THE WORLD. I have to admit I am getting better because “I AM A HUMAN BEING AND NOT A ROBOT” but, also because, I have a friend who cancels or forgets EVERYTHING and who, on a rare occasion, when she does make it, it is GUARANTEED she’ll be at least 2-5 hours late. You see, I compare myself to people like her (in my opinion it is the worst way to be) and because of the way she makes me feel, I would ALWAYS try my best to keep my promises. As I said I am getting better knowing that I am not letting people down as a “norm” and that, on a rare occasion when it does happen, I do have to tell myself: IT’S OK, I AM A HUMAN BEING :). P.S. Keep ups the good work in remembering BEING A HUMAN BEING :). We need more people like you.

  5. sandy
    8 May, 2017 / 8:51 am

    the other week I held up a project at work because we hadn’t received some of the data we needed for it. Turned out we did have it, in my email inbox. I’d just overlooked it when I got back form holiday. Ooops.

    As you say, we all make mistakes.

    How we deal with our own mistakes can help our children learn a lot too. I’m a big fan of letting kids make mistakes so they learn to deal with it, but parental example has a lot of importance too. Don’t forget how we react to other people’s – teacher put her foot in it saying the wrong thing? Unless it’s a regular occurrence then cut her some slack, even the superhuman teacher species makes mistakes sometimes, if you give your child the impression that’s not acceptable then how can you justify accepting your own or your child’s mistakes?

  6. 8 May, 2017 / 10:53 am

    Oh, the perfectionism streak. What a hard taskmaster it is… and it’s all in your head :/

  7. 11 May, 2017 / 4:14 pm

    Great post literally! We all usually react in the same manner while hiding our mistakes and just continue to move on. In my opinion, life is too short to think about our mistakes so harshly. xx
    Kate | HydeandSleep Discount Codes

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