Mistakes
so many are afraid to make them, don't be, see them for what they are creative opportunities.
Why do you hate making mistakes so much that you beat yourself up? Mistakes are a good thing not a bad one. It gives you lots of information as to what you don't want so you have the ability to find what you do want. Some times, often times, with the right eye, mistakes can be very profitable. The following list is a few examples of profitable “mistakes”.
Matches were a mistake - In 1826, John Walker was stirring a pot of chemicals when he noticed a dried lump had formed on the end of the mixing stick. Without thinking, he tried to scrape off the dried glob and – all of a sudden – it ignited. He sold them in book stores as "friction lights". They were also called “Lucifers” & “fire-inch sticks”< these actually exploded.
“Safety matches” were made with different chemicals so they didn’t explode that is what makes them “safe”. LOL
Fudge was a "fudged" batch of cake icing. But when the baker went to put it on the cake he discovered to his horror it had become solid and he couldn’t spread it. He cut it up, tasted it, like it, served it and it was a hit.
The first potato chips were actually meant as an insult, it too turned into such a big hit, it became part of the snack industry.
Harry Brearly from the English city of Sheffield tried to come up with a better gun barrel, one that didn’t expand after being fired. He ended up discovering a better steal, one that didn’t rust, stainless steal.
In 1907 Leo Baekeland, a Belgian-born chemist developed the first plastic, he was trying to find a replacement for shellac, a resin secreted by a South Asian scale bug.
Post it notes were a mistake. - In 1968, Mr. Spencer was supposed to be inventing a strong adhesive for the aerospace industry. However, he accidentally made the exact opposite: a weak adhesive made of tiny acrylic microspheres that were nearly indestructible and would stick well even after several uses.
In 1856, Perkin was an 18-year-old student at the Royal College of London. He attempted to create artificial quinine, an anti-malaria drug derived from tree bark. He was unsuccessful. However, his curiosity spiked when his failures resulted in the creation of the first-ever synthetic dye, it is known as “Mauve” (purple).
Play-Doh was invented as a cleaning agent, to remove soot off wall paper.
Silly Putty the eraser colored goo that you can stretch, bounce and throw was not intended to be a favorite childhood toy, but a synthetic substitute for rubber to be used for tires, gas masks, life rafts, and boots for World War II.
Also to aid American troops during World War II engineer Richard James attempted to invent springs that would support and stabilize sensitive instruments on naval ships during rough seas. One spring was knocked off the worktable and stepped its way down to the floor, re-coiled itself and stood upright on the floor. It became another favorite childhood toy known as Slinky.
Velcro came from examining burs caught in a dog’s coat.
Saccharin came as a sweet and scary surprise.
The micro wave oven, & x-rays were mistakes.
Roy Plunkett invented Teflon while trying to make a better refrigerator.
In search of an easy to digest bread substitute for the patients of Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, led to the boiling of wheat to make dough, but it never turned into dough, as the wheat boiled for far too long. When it was rolled out the wheat separated into large, flat flakes. After baking and tasting, it was decided it was a delicious, healthy snack worthy of their patients. Later they tried it with corn which became a huge hit that was requested after patients left the sanitarium – and Corn Flakes was born.
Charles Goodyear spent years trying to overcome rubber's problem of melting in the summer and shattering in the winter only succeeded by mistake, after ending up in jail for going into debt trying. Undeterred and being labeled a “mad man”, he had added sulfur to rubber as a drying agent, and when he went into a general store in Woburn, Mass to show off his rubber product, Goodyear got so excited the rubber flew out of his hands and landed on a hot stove. After he examined it he noticed that it still had the springy surface texture of rubber; “gum-elastic” it was called. He had finally succeeded in making weather proof rubber – Vulcanized Rubber.
Ice cream cones were invented on a hot day when venders at a park ran out of glass cups to serve the ice cream in as they had either been broken or walked off with. The neighboring vender selling waffles wasn't doing so well. So the two venders teamed up and did very well.
In 1905, Frank Epperson from San Francisco made a fruit-flavored soda drink out of powder and water, a popular concoction back then. However, one evening, he never finished making the soda and left it outside overnight (it was a cold night) with the stirring stick still in the cup, come morning that the drink had frozen around the stick. He popped it out of the cup and licked it – he called it “Eppsicle”.
Seventeen years later, he served the frozen lollipops to the public at a fireman’s ball and they were a huge hit. A year later, he enjoyed even more success selling them for a nickel each at an amusement park in Alameda, Calif., called Neptune Beach which closed in 1939.
Epperson applied for the patent in 1923 and began producing more fruit flavors selling the frozen pops on birch wood sticks. Epperson’s children didn’t like the name and called it "Popsicles".
Know that there are no mistakes, only experiences that expand your soul and make you the person you are. Your soul chooses the unique circumstances and situations in your life as lessons of self-mastery.
When people are learning mistakes are made – hold space for them.
When people are learning, growing, or going through grief or transition, they are bound to make some mistakes along the way. When we hold space for them, withhold judgment or shame, we offer them the opportunity to reach inside themselves to find the courage to take risks and the resilience to keep going even when they fail. When we let them know that failure is simply a part of the journey and not the end of the world, they’ll spend less time beating themselves up for it and more time learning from their mistakes.
Keep your own ego out of it
Someone else’s success is not dependent on our intervention. Nor does their failure reflect poorly on us. Nor does whatever emotions they choose to unload on us, about us, instead of them.
To truly support another’s growth, we need to keep our egos out of it and create the space where they have the opportunity to grow and learn.
Don’t take another person’s power away. When we take decision-making power out of people’s hands, we leave them feeling useless and incompetent. They are perfectly capable of making their own choices this includes children. To feel empowered one needs to be able to make their own choices and be supported in those choices even if it isn’t the choice we would make. There is never a need to direct or control another.
Don’t give more information than a person can handle, only as much as needed because too much information leaves folks feeling over whelmed and incompetent. [Trying to teach someone how to multiply before they can count is useless information.]
Yet give guidance and help with humility and thoughtfulness, take care of the things that they are not able to do for themselves offering a hand until they are able to do for themselves.
Give people permission to trust their own intuition and wisdom, we don’t need to do things according to some arbitrary protocol, “go by the book”, or “follow the law” because it is mandated. We simply needed to trust our intuition and accumulated wisdom from the many years we’d lived and loved.
Redefine every negative in your life as something positive because the love you withhold is the pain that you carry.
This story I dedicate to a dear friend of mine, who posted the wrong hospital room number of another friend in an e-mail to everyone. We never know who that mistake might have helped.
“Night Watch”
This not a true story, but an incredible work of short fiction written in 1964 by Roy Popkin.
“A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. ‘Your son is here,’ she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened.”
Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man’s limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement. The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused. Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited. Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her, “Who was that man?” he asked.
The nurse was startled, ‘He was your father,’ she answered.
‘No, he wasn’t,” the Marine replied. ‘I never saw him before in my life.’
‘Then why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?’”
Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital – the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night. I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed.
I came here tonight to find a Mr. William Grey. His Son was killed in Iraq today, and I was sent to inform him. What was this Gentleman’s Name?’”
The nurse with tears in her eyes answered, ‘Mr. William Grey…’”
Another Hospital Story
There was a young nurse who worked ER in a hospital and her supervisor was always on her ass. One day on the way out, in the parking lot a man snatched her up and raped her. Two days later he was in the ER on the table. Of course when she saw him there she froze in fear. Someone had to grab her and snap her out of it so she could help this man. And she did, she did her best to help save him but he died.
After the man died, those in the room asked her why she froze she told them.
Upon hearing that the nurse froze the family sued her and the hospital ... and there was a big ado about her neglecting him and causing him to die. There was a hearing held at the Hospital on that, and of course in the hospital's hearing she wasn't allowed to be in the room and face her "accusers" or hear what others were saying about her to the panel. Her co-workers were called upon to tell about what happened that day in the ER and she just knew she was about to lose her job and be banned when she was just starting out (debt still to carry).
When finally her supervisor came out of the hearing room, the young nurse was so full of fear she verbally attacked her supervisor saying. "I know you hate me you are always riding my ass. With you I can't ever do anything right! ..."
Supervisor just kind of looked at her and allowed her to vent with out any attempt to defend herself. Then when the nurse shut up, the supervisor said, “You have it all wrong. I ride your ass so hard because I can see the potential you have. I want you to do far better because I know you have it in you. You remind me of me when I was your age. I know you will rise to great heights if you but apply yourself. You have no idea how much I admire you, I had no one to teach me.”
As the supervisor walked away the young nurse was called into the room and told she was cleared of all wrong doing and she got to keep her job and the law suit was dropped.
The moral of the story is some times we allow our fears of other people's opinions to to get the better of us.
Today, I am giving you a DAILY SURVIVAL KIT to help you each day.
Toothpick ... to remind you to pick the good qualities
in everyone, including yourself.
Rubber band ... to remind you to be flexible.
Things might not always go the way you want, but it can be worked out.
Band-Aid ... to remind you to heal hurt feelings,
either yours or someone else's.
Eraser ... to remind you everyone makes mistakes,
that's okay, we learn from our errors.
The following is something you have likely never heard before but it is truth and I can prove it.
No one is perfect, no matter how much they might like to think that they are, they are not.
The reason for this is they can not be what God is not. And God can’t be what we are not.
We all know that we are part of God, that is what “we are all one” means.
So as a collective, who do you think is making all those mistakes?
Yep, God is.
The truth is mistakes are the only way to learn. God is ALL about learning.
If you are learning you are growing. If you are not learning you are dead.
Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead."
What he was talking about, folks who so fear making a mistake that they don't do anything at all.
The trick to this not to let others opinions to push your buttons, that is when you get into trouble.
Here are the choices;
1) You can react by being ashamed of having messed up, and shut down and not try anything new, always do things the way they have always been done.
Or
2) You can own it, taking responsibility (that is the ability to respond to a given situation) and say "Okay, I Yes I made a mistake. Now I have learned what does not work and I will find a different way to do things. "
Which way do you think would get you into more trouble?
The truth is nothing kills creatively as fast as the fear of making a mistake.
Here is another "trick" God does NOT know everything.
God does know everything the collective knows, but that isn't everything.
God ENCOURAGES mistakes, because He wants to know more, to learn, to grow.
After all THAT is the "treasure" an energy being collects.
Without new learning, there is no growth, when there is no growth He and the collective dies.
That is just how important YOU and your mistakes are!
If the reason you fear making mistakes is due to someone else’s judgments; here are some other pages to read and consider.
2) How to deal with difficult people.
The message is that no matter which point of view may be right, the real villain is the hatred, which emerges from the conflict. And it is hate that becomes the overriding destructive force, which may be the unintended consequence of pursuing justice, however that is defined. Thus some times it is best to just let things go. Let God handle it.
I would like to offer a special “Thank you”, to
Lisa Robertson Milam for proof reading this page.
Thank you Lisa.