Make Mistakes

Like many folks this time of year, I was attending high school graduation festivities last week. The speaker at one of the events quoted C.S. Lewis in his speech:

I loved the endorsement to fall…the expectation that falling is necessary.

What I particularly loved was how the student themselves reinforced this principal, unwittingly as they shared their favorite memories.

A couple talked about the fondness with which they remembered getting lost on the second day of school in a stairwell that was locked from the inside. I’m sure it wasn’t fun at the time, but they remembered it as a highlight, now years later.

Others reflected on how much they enjoyed the canoe trip several of the grads took with a teacher…it rained for 4.5 of the 5 days they were gone. Not my idea of fun. And I’m sure as they were shlepping those canoes and all their gear over the portages in the slippery muddy paths they were not laughing…but they remembered it as a highlight.

I loved hearing that the most memorable moments of their years in school together was the laughter they had shared over difficult moments, tough times, and fall-on-your-face episodes of error.

A few more thoughts to encourage you to be creative, play hard, and allow yourself the space to be free…with mistakes being a part of that!

“We learn from failure, not from success!”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
― Elbert Hubbard

“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being–forgive me–rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”
― Paulo Coelho, Brida

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
― Albert Einstein

Whatever you do today…skate hard, and risk falling hard. It’s OK. We all make mistakes. And we can learn from mistakes. Apologize if you need to. But live large, try new things, take risks, don’t “not try it” cuz you’re not sure if you’re gonna get it right the first time.

Have fun!