To Err is Human:- Sitaram Bishwokarma, English Teacher

To Err is Human

➤ English Teacher

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

 – Albert Einstein

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istakes are the incorrect opinions or actions, which give undesired output. To put it another   way, they are the erroneous actions, which produce unintended result. They may occur in either or both of the utterances and written texts. As none in the world is perfect, it is obvious for mistakes to occur. However, the severity of mistakes varies and so do the effects. On the basis of how much serious the effect is, the types of mistakes can be slip/lapse, error, mistake and blunder/howler. This may also be called the levels of mistake. Slip or lapse is the mistake made by the carelessness or by forgetting. Error is the mistake that one makes due to inaccuracy in information. Mistake also refers to the incorrectness of information.

However, the demarcation between these two can be traced i.e. when one commits error it can be corrected by the self if little more concentration is paid whereas the mistakes need to be corrected with the help of somebody else. On the other hand, blunder or howler is regarded as the stupid mistake. Slip has the least downbeat impact while the rate of negativity progressively increases as we go towards howler through error and mistake. When one is just careful, the lapses and errors can be minimized and the words like sorry, excuse me, pardon etc. are used by the speaker to get an excuse from the listener. Unlike this, the negative effects of mistake may not be effortlessly corrected as the person making mistakes is unaware of it. In contrast to the lapses and errors, the effects that the blunder or howler leaves on the speaker or the reader can in no way be minimized and the consequences may be quite disastrous.

Mistakes provide scaffolding for learning. As a mason takes the help of scaffolding to create the further structure of a building, same does a painter, a learner can take his/her mistakes to take him/her one step upper or further in course of learning. If one follows the 3 Rs of mistake viz. Regret, Realize, Reflect, mistakes can have exquisite effects in further achievement. When we regret about the mistake we have made, we try to avoid it the next time; similarly, realization of mistake is the process of learning from it. Likewise, if one reflects on the mistakes, s/he tries to avoid repeating them. Amine Ayad’s quote “Be humble to see your mistakes, courageous to admit them and wise enough to correct them” also suggests learning from mistakes. The reality is that people hardly see their own mistakes but when it comes to the other’s mistake, they hardly skip or forget it. Pointing out someone’s mistake is as easy as ABC whereas it is the toughest to see, admit and correct own mistake. Try not to point out other’s mistake because it is an absolute truth that you want to be better than anybody else. If yes, why not to see your own mistakes, admit them and learn from them? You yourself not anyone will be benefited out of it. Please adopt it as a habit. This ability of yours to see your own mistakes, acceptance of the mistakes and correction of the same will lead you to grand success of every action in life.

Many of us fail to learn from our mistakes. Why we fail to learn from our mistakes is either we do not see our own mistakes or we are too disappointed when our mistakes are spotted. We are afraid of making multiple mistakes when we know we have made one. That is what prevents us from making attempts and therefore from achievements and learning.“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same a second time.” George Bernard Shaw has very rightly said this line because if one is afraid of making mistakes, s/he will never try to take action. Without beginning, it is far beyond impossible to achieve or learn.

Learning is possible only through a series of trials and errors. When we try something, it may not exactly work the very first time. We may do it wrong i.e. make mistake/error but having practised numbers of time we get the right ways to do it. Practice makes a man perfect. Practice is a repeated series of actions by means of which one can get perfection or completeness. When we practise making mistakes, we will be perfect in making mistakes and when we practise correcting mistakes we will be perfect in the same i.e. perfect in correcting ourselves from mistakes. To say in other words, when one becomes habituated to making mistakes it is really hard to get rid of it and when you make it a habit of correcting your mistakes and learning from them, you will be unknowingly correcting them. Therefore, you can be perfect the way you like. I am sure nobody likes to be a failure. So, practise correcting mistakes if you want to succeed.

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