As a teacher, I often made mistakes. I realized when I started teaching the older grades that there were going to be times when the students would know more than me, or recognize that a word had been spelled incorrectly, or a math question had an error in it. It was inevitable. But, it was an important part of teaching too, for the students to find my mistakes, and for them to see me own them.
Dangers Of Perfection
There can be a lot of shame around making mistakes and admitting them. We all make mistakes. It’s part of living. In a day, there are a lot of decisions to make. They can’t all be good ones. We recognize this and yet we aim for perfection. In the absence of the unattainable perfection, we sometimes pretend that errors were never made, to save ourselves from the embarrassment of being human. Sadly, that behaviour only perpetuates the image of us as someone who has it all together, more than everyone else.
It Impacts Our Relationship With Self
That got-it-all-together image is dangerous to uphold for ourselves, and for others to see. Appearing to be perfect, puts unrealistic pressure on ourselves to uphold an image and hide our mistakes. It can lead to uncomfortable lies and half-truths.
It Impacts Our Relationships With Others
It also makes us less relatable as a messy, mistake-riddled human. Whether we’re a celebrity, a teacher or someone’s parent, appearing to not make mistakes makes others feel “less than.” Admitting that we’ve been mistaken about something we did, actually makes us more relatable in the eyes of others. ‘They are just like us. They make mistakes.’
Benefits Of Owning Our Blunders
Admitting our errors gives those watching us permission to admit their own mistakes. It creates tolerance for mistakes and separates the action of making mistakes from our self-worth. “…in situations where mistakes are not viewed as an opportunity for learning, failure threatens our self-esteem; and when our self-esteem is threatened, we stop learning.”*
Let’s take the pressure off everyone and speak about our mistakes openly. They are opportunities for learning and growth.
Retired, And Now What? 
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