Our readers say mistakes teach you great lessons and make you a better person if you choose to learn from them

Every day we wake up to learn, to do something different and to make the day better than yesterday. Simply put we are always eager to move towards perfection. Mistakes are the art of living — they are created by us in order to paint our life. So, making mistakes means making ourselves mature and learning from the mistakes while avoiding them drives us closer towards perfection.

As my journey to perfection continues, I learn from mistakes, also repeat them sometimes but mostly avoid them. But it isn’t that I don’t repeat the same mistake again — I do because when I don’t commit those mistakes again my mind may ask for new creation of arts which I may fail to do. For instances, not obeying mum leaving blanket unfolded, cheating trainer during workouts, I guess these make my life interesting.

— Pritam Basnet, Panauti, Kavre

Making mistake in life is not a big thing but learning from your mistake certainly is. As human beings we do make lots of mistakes in life. I am no exception and I have made many mistakes in my life whether taking a decision on something, trusting someone or attempting some new work and so on. But the good part is that I have a habit of learning from my mistakes. Whenever I make a mistake in life, I realise later on, and this has helped me to think twice before attempting something similar in the future. Every mistake teaches me a lesson, I get to learn something or the other. And this has enabled me to take decisions more wisely and sensibly than before — I have become a more confident and better person.

— Tejaswi Pahari, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur

I do not make same mistake again. This habit of mine has always helped me to be a better person in life. So, I earnestly request everyone to not to repeat their mistakes, but correct them because a wise man learns from his/her own mistake.

— Ujjwal Jha, Kupondole, Lalitpur

No one is perfect in this world, so we sometimes make mistakes. We learn from our experiences and mistakes. Mistakes teach us important lessons so that we are aware and stay alert in similar situations in future. No one makes mistakes knowingly. I don’t like repeating the same mistake and I believe in improving myself regularly. Maturity in human beings comes through learning and improving oneself. When I am aware of the mistakes I have made, I always try to correct them. In some cases I can rectify its impact partially and in worst case can’t rectify fully. But, it does help me in all my future endeavours as I will always be cautious next time not to repeat the same mistakes. This has helped me a lot to become a better person.

— Sulochana Panta, Kavre

There’s a famous saying, ‘Anyone who doesn’t make a mistake has never tried anything new.’ I am curious and always try to do something new and extravagant but find myself making mistakes. I have trusted people many times and got betrayed. I have learned not to trust others easily and to be independent. Sometimes I learn from my mistakes or by analysing the mistake of others. But sometimes, I repeat the same mistake without learning anything from it. I have problem with time management. I waste time when I have time and I face immense pressure during exams. My habit of being lazy, careless and being late at work are some of the mistakes I keep on making. I want to change and overcome these mistakes.

— Anonymous

It’s natural for every individual to make mistake in some part of their life. Mistake simply happens. How hard we try not to make any mistakes but we fail as they aren’t meant to be stopped totally. The only thing we can do is stop such mistakes from happening again and learning some lessons from them. It is said that mistake isn’t a problem, repeating the same might be troublesome. Even I am used to making mistakes. Sometimes repeating the mistake would be like a schedule and the other time I try not to. But the lessons I learn from some mistakes are important.

— Manisha Maharjan

Mistakes are a part of our life. We keep making mistakes — small or big — everyday and knowingly or unknowingly. I had one very bad habit of not being punctual. I always used to be late for my morning classes. Also, I used to do my assignments or projects, the night before the submission date. One night before my practical exam, I stayed till 3:00 am to prepare my project work. After finishing typing, I closed my computer without transferring the document on pen-drive and went to sleep. When I woke up at 6:00 am, there was load-shedding and I could not transfer the file. Luckily my friend provided me a copy of a project work and I hurried to print it. It had already been late. After printing, I took a tempo that was too slow. I felt like crying. Finally, I reached my exam hall one hour late. The teacher gave  me some time. I learnt an important lesson from that incident — not doing things on time only leads to horrible consequences. And from that day onwards, I have been trying to do my every work on time.

— Anonymous

I do learn from my mistakes, but I also forget what I learnt and make the same mistakes again and again.  For example, I sometimes type my hard work on the computer but I forget to save it, and my hard work vanishes. I am told to put away my things in the right place but I forget and then cannot find them when it is time to go to school.  My father tells me that I should learn from my mistakes. I try to remember things so that I am not disappointed and also do not make others angry.

— Rebecca  Rai

I do believe that conscious learning from our mistakes can create something worthwhile in our daily lives. Over the years I have grown up from being a stoic and harsh person to a docile person. For example, mass ragging was common in our school. Our seniors would take away our fashionable clothes and wear them on Sundays. Had we resisted, we would get beaten up ruthlessly. This being customary, juniors dared not to complain. Few years later, when they returned to school as alumni, we turned our backs towards them. The mistake was that we carried on this legacy when we were seniors too.

This time our juniors complained to the Rector about such inhumane behaviour exercised upon them. We were arrogant and did not bother against the warnings given to us. Once, twice, thrice, and the warnings continued while the ragging grew bitter.

This habit affected me to a great extent. One day I met one of those juniors at the City Mall and he too turned his back at me. I felt deeply ashamed. This was how I learnt from my mistake and vowed to be a gentleman then onwards.

— Bishal Raj Paudyal

None is perfect in this world. Everyone makes mistake. Making mistakes is not the problem but repeating the same is the problem. We have miles to go ahead and there comes a situation where we make mistakes knowingly or unknowingly. After making mistakes it is necessary to realise them. I am a student of Class IX. Till now I have made a lot of mistakes. And I have realised some of my mistakes, but not all. From my past mistakes, I have learnt not to believe anyone blindly. I have realised not to hide anyone’s mistake. I have learnt that not everyone who speak sweetly are good people. I have learnt that the thing we love the most is the one we never get. And when I realised that I was going through the wrong track, I changed my path and now I am in the right path.

— Anonymous

Only those people who want to be successful in future learn from their mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes but not all like to admit that they are wrong because they are afraid of other people’s opinion towards them. People who embrace their mistakes can find new meaning of life.

— Anonymous

I have also learnt from my mistakes. I made one such mistake while choosing A-level subjects. I avoided some subjects because they are believed to be difficult, and I chose only those subjects that were supposed to be the easier ones. But when I start studying I realised that the subjects I had chosen were actually the difficult ones. This incident made me realise that we should not choose subjects simply because someone has labelled them as difficult or easy. The basis to choose a subject should be our interest towards it so that we can enjoy what we study.

— Saugat Thapa, Lubhoo-5, Lalitpur  

Mistake is the key to success in my life. I have made so many mistakes in my life so far, no matter what they were. Most importantly, each mistake has taught me a valuable lesson for my life. Similarly, I strongly believe that there is no perfectionist in terms of achieving 100 per cent result. Having said this, each of us has come across the mistake in our life.

Right now, I have been making the same mistake again and again on my English grammar. This thing really upsets me when I go through it. But, at the same time, I can feel that a good teacher can teach me English grammar and creative writing skills with the utmost sincerity for my improvements. However, it is painful to say that till date I have not met such a teacher. Step by step, to the best of my knowledge, I will carefully work on my grammar in the coming days too.

— Saroj Wagle, Dumarwana, 04, Bara

I work in forensic lab and my profession deals with examining and investigating varieties of cases, including final report writings of the cases. While doing my work, I sometimes happen to make mistakes. When my seniors discover the mistakes, they give me advice and feedback to correct them. Admitting, accepting, hearing and following them, I work to solve the problems in a flawless manner, keeping in mind not to recur such mistakes again in future.

I am believer of the widespread wit and wisdom “To err is human”. But also, I think mistakes are to be admitted. All types of sincere suggestions and constructive comments are to be cherished and applied. And the intelligence lies on grabbing lessons from them and not repeating the same mistake. I take mistakes as an experience, life’s way of teaching to be better than earlier and the best teacher to the road of success.

— Rangels Shrestha, Balkot, Bhaktapur

Once you start ignoring your mistakes it eventually leads you to repeat them. And gradually you start to get accustomed to it. As a result this habit instigates you to make same mistakes umpteen times. I used to have such a habit. But I followed that old adage, ‘Better late than never’. Being earnest about my mistakes has really been helpful for me to learn from my mistakes, and to prevent from repeating the same mistake.

— Shristina Shrestha, Sinamangal, Kathmandu

I make a number of mistakes but I learn from them. Some mistakes happen unknowingly, some due to my habits, some because of lack of awareness and knowledge while other because I am a person who trust and develop friendship with people very quickly.

Generally, I have been underestimated and sometimes betrayed because of my innocence. I always help people who come with kind and sweet words and gestures. But all that glitters are not gold. Though I help others, when it is my turn, I don’t get any help as per my expectations.

All my mistakes in past have made me aware about people, and taught me to be patient before starting any relationship. Now I can determine the real faces of people. Sweet words and kind gestures can’t fool me anymore. I have become stronger both mentally and emotionally.

— Ritu Gupta, Birgunj, Parsa

Mistakes are a part of life. But it does not mean that we should keep on making mistakes, without learning anything from it. When a mistake happens, we can always learn something from it. When we make the same mistake for the second time, it’s not a mistake, it’s a choice. So, I do learn from my mistakes. When I do something wrong, I correct it and make my performance better. For instance, if I score less marks in the exams, I review my exam papers and find out my mistakes so that I won’t repeat them in future. We should never stop learning from our mistake.

— Ankush Adhikari, Old Baneshwor, Kathmandu

People who ignore their mistakes never learn. We have to realise our mistakes and develop habit to learn from them. Mistakes sharpen our mind, help us to focus on our work, and motivate us to do our best. I have also learnt from my mistakes. When I was in school, I used to make many mistakes while solving mathematical problems as I did not know the rules. Rather than learning properly, I used to copy from my friends and complete homework and classwork. This habit of mine affected me in negative way. So, after making a mistake if we realise it and correct it on time then we need not regret later.

— Mohan Raj Sapkota, Jadibuti

I have made many mistakes in my life. In the past, it used to be extremely difficult for me to get control over my emotions, and it was one of my bad habits. At present, I am not really facing such kind of problem, and I simply don’t commit such mistakes too. I am successful in controlling my emotions to a large extent. I think properly before speaking or doing anything. Now I have come to know that mistakes have to be made in order to achieve success in our life. Without making mistakes, we can’t fulfil our dream, goal, ambition and even desire which are deemed highly important.

— Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar, Baneshwor

I do learn from my mistakes because repeating the same mistake is an embarrassing act. I feel only those who are irresponsible do not tend to learn from their mistakes. People, who make same mistakes again and again, not only are wasting their time but not respecting other people too. Not doing right things at right time was one of the biggest weakness of mine. I used to procrastinate and this made me into a very unreliable person at my work. As such one important project was taken away from me because my boss could not rely on my punctuality and time management. That moment I felt like moving backward in my career. Since then, I have tried to finish all works on time — it was very difficult initially. But I made a routine and followed it strictly. Now, I have turned to one of the trustworthy person at my work.

— Anonymous

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

The temperature has started to drop and winter is approaching. Some people are happy to welcome winter while some dread the cold season. Do you like winter? What do you like or dislike about this season? Illustrate.

­Send your replies in not more than 200 words by Friday, November 18 by 2 pm to Features Department, The Himalayan Times, e-mail: features@thehimalayantimes.com