It’s OK to make mistakes

I spend time in a classroom, as a teacher. It’s not any sort of classroom, but a classroom full of intensity and pressure. It’s a pressure where people understand they are learning life-saving skills, and failure to master those skills could lead to their own death or the death of others, and mastery could save lives. Consequently, students tend to get pretty hard on themselves when they make mistakes.

Please stop.

You are human.

You will make mistakes.

You will fail, perhaps many times, before you succeed.

You are a student. You are in class. You are admitting you don’t know something, that you aren’t good at something. But by paying the money and spending the time, you are demonstrating your willingness to overcome, to fill that void, to improve yourself.

Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Some months ago while participating as a student in a class, I watched a gentleman fail and make mistakes. This guy is smart, very capable, and a master of certain realms in his own right. But here he was, admitting his lack of knowledge, remedying his void, and being humble in his learning. He didn’t cuss himself out when he failed. He didn’t get angry about his inability. He chalked it up, learned from it, and moved on. He’s traveled the road to success, and he knows that mistakes and failure is just part of the process. Just be willing to ultimately learn and grow from those mistakes.

Every so often I see students getting so hard on themselves when they don’t do something right. While it is understandable, it begins a descent into a hole that’s hard to emerge from. If it isn’t stopped, it makes the problem worse because now the student gets so focused on the mistakes and the act of “not making mistakes” when instead they should be focused on the class material. Where you focus is where you will improve; if your brain is thinking “don’t screw up”, then your brain is focused on “screwing up” and that’s what you will do. And things will snowball downward.

Acknowledge it’s OK to make mistakes. Acknowledge it’s acceptable to not grasp the concept quite yet or at the same rate as the other students. If you’re struggling, tell an instructor and ask for help. You may even find an extreme remedy is necessary like dropping out of the class and stepping back to another class that might focus more on what you need; build the stronger foundation. That’s OK, if ultimately it gets you where you need to be. That’s the thing to focus on: where you want to be. Focusing on your mistakes won’t take you to where you want to be. Learn from the mistake, and move on — that will get you there.