Mistakes

By James Shell (Baltimore Aikikai)
jshell@harford.edu

If you never do anything you will never make a mistake.

Making a mistake is a success because you have found out what does not work and you can go onto another action.

You should learn from your mistakes so you will not repeat them.

The more prepared you are the fewer mistakes you will make.

I have heard the above almost all my life. I agree with these ideas only in part. I think mistakes are wonderful things to experience.

Things done right are not done one hundred percent right. Things done wrong are not done one hundred percent wrong. It is very likely thatif you misspell a word it is only by one or two letters. When adding numbers and coming up with an incorrect answer, if you go back and check, you probably made a single number mistake and then carried it along with you. Believing right is right and wrong is wrong is wrong.

When things go wrong it is usually only a small part that went wrong. What I would like you to look at is the small percent that was the mistake. Here is the bent nail; I want to tell you that that small percent is a very valuable item. Mistakes are ways of doing and seeing things that you would not have otherwise considered. Is that mistake a better way than what you were trying to do? The answer may very well be "no". If it is not better now it may be perfect at a later time and place.

I know that I cannot be the only person who has made a mistake, only to then realize "that is what the instructor has been trying to get me to do all this time". Be kind: if I am the only one to have had that happen do not tell me. Thank you.

Big and small mistakes can offer new ways of seeing and experiencing.

Do not study your mistakes so you can avoid them in the future, study them so you can learn from them. Here is a fun concept in the martial arts: upon seeing your opponent making a mistake you are familiar with, you can use it against them and thus use it for you. That sounds a bit unfair and underhanded; however, the final winner is generally considered to have been right all along.

So many times I have seen people practicing, (yes I have seen it in myself) who hesitate or just stop for concern they might be doing something wrong. It is very possible that it is wrong only for what you are doing right at that moment but perfectly correct for another movement. It is also true that if you will just do the movement you will see the incorrect part and can change or someone will help you see the "right way". It is hard to correct something that has not been done yet. That is all well and good but what if someone gets mad at me for making a mistake? That would be a mistake on their part and one that they should learn from, and if they do not, I guess you will have to live with their mistakes as well as your, own thus making you a better instructor.

Mistakes are going to happen so learn to enjoy them. If you learn to enjoy your mistakes you will want to make more just for the fun of it. That would be a mistake.