The Beauty in Making Mistakes

We’re often taught to fear, avoid and hide from mistakes,

to see them as proof that something is wrong with us.

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that being worthy meant being right, polished,

and put together. That mistakes were something to outgrow as quickly as possible or worse,

something to be ashamed of.

But what if mistakes are not interruptions to the journey? What if they are the journey?

Every skill you’ve ever learned, every layer of wisdom you’ve grown into, every version of yourself you’ve gently outgrown… came through trial. Through missteps. Through moments where you didn’t quite know what you were doing and chose to try anyway.

Mistakes are not signs of failure. They are signs of participation, courage, and movement.

Life does not teach us through instructions alone. It teaches us through lived experience. Through doing, adjusting, listening, and trying again. Lived experience is rarely neat. It’s textured and imperfect. It asks us to learn with our hands, our hearts, and our nervous systems, not just our minds.

Spiritually, mistakes are sacred teachers. They humble us in ways success never could. They soften our edges. They invite us into compassion not only for others, but for ourselves. They remind us that growth isn’t linear and healing doesn’t follow a straight path, it spirals. It revisits familiar lessons with deeper understanding.

It meets us where we are, not where we think we should  be.

When we make a mistake, something inside us opens. We slow down and pay attention. We feel the impact and in that moment of awareness, wisdom is born. Not the kind you memorize, the kind you become. The kind that settles into your bones and quietly changes the way you move through the world.

There is also tenderness here. Mistakes reveal where we care, tried, and hoped. Where we loved something enough to risk getting it wrong. They show us what matters to us like our values, our longings, our boundaries and often more clearly than our successes ever could.

Working on yourself doesn’t mean living in constant self-correction or harsh self-evaluation. It doesn’t mean "fixing" yourself into someone more acceptable. It means to act out of curiosity and honesty. To learn how to sit with discomfort without abandoning yourself.

The most lasting growth does not come from punishment, it comes from understanding and gentleness, and choosing to stay present instead of shutting down.

So if you’re in a season where things feel clumsy…If you’re learning something new and stumbling as you go…If you’re looking back at choices you would make differently now…

Pause & Breathe.

You are not behind. You are not broken. You are learning the only way any of us ever truly do by living.

Mistakes are not the opposite of growth.They are the doorway.

And every time you choose to keep going softly, honestly, with your heart still open, you are already becoming wiser than you were before.

Journal Prompt:

Think of a mistake you once wished you could erase.Not to judge it, just to sit with it.

What did this experience teach you about yourself that you couldn’t have learned any other way?

How did it shape your values, your boundaries, or your compassion?

If that version of you were sitting in front of you right now, what would you say to them? Not as a critic, but as a loving witness.

Write your response slowly. Let your words be soft. Let this be a moment of honoring how you learned, not how you failed.