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Forums - General - If You Could Change Mistakes You Made, Would You?

highwaystar101 on 21 October 2009
Slimebeast said:
highwaystar101 said:

No it's not.

There are plenty of times I've made a mistake and it has taught me a valuable lesson. If a kid who's climbing a tree falls out of it and breaks their arm, the likelihood is that they wont want to make the same mistake again. They will be much more careful.

I have a big situation from my life where my mistake has made me a much better person.

At university in my first year for one of my modules I had a report to write, it was worth 10% of the module grade. In my naive foolishness I decided that 10% wasn't worth the effort and so I didn't do it. A few weeks later my lecturer asked me why I hadn't handed it in and I told him that I was busy and sacrificed one report and I chose his to sacrifice. Big mistake. He went apeshit and said that if that was my attitude I might as well leave university now because it was a fast way to achieve failure.

Do you think I ever skipped a report or missed a deadline again? No, of course I haven't.

Quite the opposite actually, I think from that moment on I made sure that I gave every piece of work my best effort and made sure that for the most part they were finished at least a week in advance. To be honest if I was let off for not handing that report in, I wouldn't have achieved such a good degree at university and I wouldn't be doing my Masters and I wouldn't be going on to do a PhD.

I learned from that mistake big time and I'm a better person for it.

...

Conversely, there are plenty of mistakes I wish I haven't made too because I haven't particularly benefited from them in any way whatsoever. That was my point, you make some that you have learned from and you make some that you haven't. It's true.

I think I agree with you (have to read your post first though lol).

I was nitpicking about how u wrote it, as you said 'People need to know that you have to make mistakes in order to improve."

I should have greened it and u would have saved 2 minutes of your life.

Ah, ok, now were on the same page. In that case I agree, perhaps I should have worded it differently. But you know what I mean.



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Dragon-Fan on 21 October 2009
highwaystar101 said:
Conversely, there are plenty of mistakes I wish I haven't made too because I haven't particularly benefited from them in any way whatsoever. That was my point, you make some that you have learned from and you make some that you haven't. It's true.

Learning from the mistake doesn't always make it worth the education. 



Slimebeast on 21 October 2009
Dragon-Fan said:
Slimebeast said:
I've crashed my car in winter traffic a couple of times because of arrogance , the consequence of that is that I feel overly nervous on winter roads today.

I'd say you should keep that one.  If you hadn't had those crashes that stopped your arrogant winter driving, you could have gotten into an accident that crippled you or even killed you.  (I'm assuming you weren't crippled.) 

Maybe you are right. But I don't feel that way. Im thinking I wasted $15,000 (the second car was without insurance - another mistake btw) and the unfomfortable feeling in my spine when I sense and hear how the tires react on winter snow and icey roads make me scared now (a natural instinct I suppose) and I can't enjoy the trip. I dont even turn up the stereo in my car very loud like I used to, because I want to make sure I can hear the tires and get the feel of the road. 

Plus soon, in a few years I would become a more cautious driver anyway, simply from natural reasons. I guy in his 40's has much more risk awareness and hasn't got as much testosterone as a wild youth in his 20's.



highwaystar101 on 21 October 2009
Slimebeast said:

 guy in his 40's has much more risk awareness and hasn't got as much testosterone as a wild youth in his 20's.

There's no way you're in your 40's lol. I would have said maybe early 30's.



Slimebeast on 21 October 2009
highwaystar101 said:
Slimebeast said:

 guy in his 40's has much more risk awareness and hasn't got as much testosterone as a wild youth in his 20's.

There's no way you're in your 40's lol. I would have said maybe early 30's.

lol, no but I will in a few years, in like 8 years.

I have already started to feel a lot calmer and less aggressive and stuff in the last few years, stuff that comes with an ageing male brain and nuts lol.



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highwaystar101 on 21 October 2009
Slimebeast said:
highwaystar101 said:
Slimebeast said:

 guy in his 40's has much more risk awareness and hasn't got as much testosterone as a wild youth in his 20's.

There's no way you're in your 40's lol. I would have said maybe early 30's.

lol, no but I will in a few years, in like 8 years.

I have already started to feel a lot calmer and less aggressive and stuff in the last few years, stuff that comes with an ageing male brain and nuts lol.

So I was right in thinking you were in your early 30's?

 

Boo-YAH...



Slimebeast on 21 October 2009
highwaystar101 said:
Slimebeast said:
highwaystar101 said:
Slimebeast said:

 guy in his 40's has much more risk awareness and hasn't got as much testosterone as a wild youth in his 20's.

There's no way you're in your 40's lol. I would have said maybe early 30's.

lol, no but I will in a few years, in like 8 years.

I have already started to feel a lot calmer and less aggressive and stuff in the last few years, stuff that comes with an ageing male brain and nuts lol.

So I was right in thinking you were in your early 30's?

 

Boo-YAH...

Yes.

And I thought u were 27, but I see you're only 22 in your profile.



highwaystar101 on 21 October 2009
Slimebeast said:
highwaystar101 said:
Slimebeast said:
highwaystar101 said:
Slimebeast said:

 guy in his 40's has much more risk awareness and hasn't got as much testosterone as a wild youth in his 20's.

There's no way you're in your 40's lol. I would have said maybe early 30's.

lol, no but I will in a few years, in like 8 years.

I have already started to feel a lot calmer and less aggressive and stuff in the last few years, stuff that comes with an ageing male brain and nuts lol.

So I was right in thinking you were in your early 30's?

 

Boo-YAH...

Yes.

And I thought u were 27, but I see you're only 22 in your profile.

Nah, I've still got another 5 years to go to be 27. Guess I give off a more mature impression when I'm on this site (as though that's going to happen lol).
But I am a little impressed with myself lol. If I had to guess I would have said you were about 31/32.

tedsteriscool on 21 October 2009

@ Slimebeast: Why so bitter about the concept of improving due to past mistakes? It's generally true, at least in my experience. And to those who are answering they wouldn't change because their past makes them what they are today...we aren't considering ourselves "perfect" by saying this. We're merely (or at least I, I don't want to put words into anyone's mouth) saying that we're in a phase of our lives that we're content with, and wouldn't want to alter it by changing the past. And changing the past definitely alters the future. Ever read "A Sound of Thunder"?



Slimebeast on 21 October 2009
tedsteriscool said:
@ Slimebeast: Why so bitter about the concept of improving due to past mistakes? It's generally true, at least in my experience. And to those who are answering they wouldn't change because their past makes them what they are today...we aren't considering ourselves "perfect" by saying this. We're merely (or at least I, I don't want to put words into anyone's mouth) saying that we're in a phase of our lives that we're content with, and wouldn't want to alter it by changing the past. And changing the past definitely alters the future. Ever read "A Sound of Thunder"?

U'r misunderstanding me. Of course I know that in general you learn from your mistakes. Even an idiot knows that. 

I'm protesting against the concept of not wanting to change any of your past mistakes.

Also I find it almost ridiculous how hard it seems to be for people to just imagine different paths and a different outcome in your life, an outcome which could mean being even more content with your life.

I can extremely easily imagine this for myself. Especially about the mistakes I have made that affected other people or beings negatively.