Learn from Our Mistakes

What's the best thing you've ever learned from one of your mistakes?

You do make mistakes, don't you? I think that we all do. We don't choose to make mistakes, but when they happen they promise to teach us something when we pay attention. That means first acknowledging that we made the mistake, and looking for ways to avoid that mistake in the future and improve on our outcomes.

Here's the silliest mistake I've ever made:

Buying carpet for a room and then cutting that carpet without measuring it

I know - what was I thinking? I thought I knew how big the room was because it just seemed natural that it would be 9 x 12. Of course, it wasn't, and I ended up with an interesting strip of carpet that then fit exactly where the bare floor still showed. What did I learn? As my dad once said, "measure twice, cut once." Yep. Oh, and also: don't assume you know the answer just because you think you know the answer.

Sometimes learning from our mistakes takes the courage to admit that we made a mistake.

I've made bigger, more serious mistakes, too. How about you? What was the silliest mistake you've ever made? What did you learn?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

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