“How many times do we pay for one mistake? …The human is the only animal on earth that pays a thousand times for the same mistake.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz
Years ago I got inspired to write a book on dreamwork. I imagined I’d write this amazing book, then end up with a radio show, that may even grow into a reality show on the Discovery channel! After all, dreams are an amazing way to grow and heal. Everyone would benefit from learning to work with their dreams, and I would be the person to bring that to the world.
And then I kept on daydreaming about it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country was a gal who loved working with dreams. She wrote a book on dreams, got a radio show, starting working on her own reality how, and then wrote another book on dreams.
I started punishing myself for this. Every time I’d come up with what I thought was a great book idea, this little voice would say “you never even followed through on your first idea, and look what happened! Someone else came along, and did what you couldn’t! Why don’t you just give up!” Good ideas started bringing with them feelings of inadequacy and overwhelm. They were simply dangling carrots that I’d never manage to enjoy!
I finally had to learn to change that missed opportunity into a lesson. That good ideas are out there waiting to be discovered, but they require an enthusiastic energy to work through. When we show the Universe that we have that enthusiasm, and are willing to be guided, that idea rushes to meet us! And it brings with it everything we’ll need to accomplish it.
No matter what sort of mistake we make, we always have the opportunity to learn from it. In fact, many a great inventor made many mistakes along the way, only to come up with something bigger and brighter than originally imagined!
How about if instead of dwelling on our mistakes, we just see them as a force moving us toward embodying something bigger and brighter than we ever imagined too!
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
There was a long time when I believed that my mistakes were what was wrong: I was very adept at playing the should-have game in some futile attempt to salvage my “rightness” when something went wrong. In order to be right, I sacrificed my ability to be loving to myself and learn from past errors. I think the milieu of being right–whatever the cost–teaches that we cannot make mistakes or that we must pay (thousands of times, sometimes) some penance. But I am now realizing–it’s a process, no?–that it wasn’t the mistakes but my inability to accept, forgive, and release them that was the problem. Cleaving to righteous indignation kept me stuck. At least I got to feel I was right or so the old tape went.
Starting to drop all this stuff is such a relief.
We can only be open to guidance–really listening–when we are willing as you say. Thanks for the great articles!!
Hi Donny! Thanks so much for your comment! And yes, I used to do the same thing too. I felt like I was under a point system – right = +1 or wrong = -1. UGH!!! Now I see mistakes as building blocks… stepping stones… or whatever 🙂 We get there when we learn from them. And most often, those mistakes were greater teachers to me than when I got something right the first time LOL.