Making Mistakes.*
This may surprise you to know, but Fogy is not perfect.
There have been a great number of very embarrassing mistakes — Fogy is of course an older gentleman, so much of what Fogy speaks about is related to what was learned through those many years.
Mistakes, of course, are part and parcel of living a good and productive life.
Mistakes, as is often said, come about because a person is willing to take those chances, opportunities, challenges to perform at a level that is not always easy. Only those who have never tried can easily say they have never made any mistakes.
The problem is in how embarrassing those mistakes seem in retrospect.
And this is where mindfulness begins to click in. Understanding what happened and what the underlying circumstances were, as well as the lessons learned, is all part of that process.
Next comes how you put that learning and understanding into practice.
That doesn't mean the pursuit of excellence — although that’s desirable — but more the pursuit of awareness. Awareness that others are just as likely to make similar mistakes, but may not have had the chance to understand them the way you did.
It’s always tempting to criticise mistakes. To assume someone was careless, unprepared, or just plain incompetent. It’s much easier to forget how often we’ve done the same thing — maybe worse.
So mindfulness, today, is about being in a better place. A place where you understand that others must be forgiven for their mistakes — just as you needed to forgive yourself for yours.
And those who never admit to making mistakes? They’re often the ones who never learn from them, either. They simply blame the outcome and move on, without stopping to see what actually went wrong.
Mindfulness also means passing on that understanding. Not by shielding people from mistakes, but by allowing them to make a few — and being ready to help them see what they can take from it.
Now, what about the younger generation — the kids who are mollycoddled from day one, led to believe they’re flawless, brilliant, and immune to failure?
Taken too far, that’s dangerous. You end up with young adults who’ve never been allowed to struggle, who panic the first time life doesn’t clap for them. They don’t know that effort matters. That perseverance counts. That practice is how you get better.
They need to be told — gently, but clearly — that mistakes are part of the job. That messing up isn’t the end of the world. And most importantly, that they’re not alone in doing so.
Mindfulness, I guess, includes not only understanding that people do make mistakes, but also recognising that humans shouldn’t be kept behind protective barriers to stop those mistakes from happening.
Mindfulness means being willing to accept mistakes — and encouraging others to push far enough that those mistakes can happen. And then making sure you're around to help them through the understanding of the whole process.
And if you haven’t made a mistake lately… you might not be trying hard enough.
Cheers
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