By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
We all make mistakes. It’s inevitable.
And obviously, these mishaps can vary in terms of significance. Forgetting to get flowers for your mom on Mother’s Day has a different consequence than getting caught cheating on an assignment or exam in class.
There are levels to the degree of a mistake. You get the point.
But what now? It happened; the mistake was made. How should someone respond? It should look like this: Identify or acknowledge the mistake, own it and then have that memory in order to learn from it. Most importantly, don’t be that person who wishes to go back and fix it.
It’s pointless to think that way anyway. It’s literally impossible to fulfill. So don’t have that counterintuitive mindset, because did you really learn from that mistake if you’re wishing to go back in time and change what happened?
It’s like those time-travel movies in which the people are supposed to avoid tampering with history because of what took place in real life. Hypothetically, traveling back in time to prevent tragedies or deaths may feel like the right thing to do, but the idea is to keep the domino effect that comes with it in mind.
Once again, none of this is possible as far as we know (unless those of you reading this have discovered a way to go back in time), but that doesn’t mean the mentality to wish for do-overs is OK.
A Forbes article from June 2023 detailed the inevitability of mistakes and how “failing is a universal part of the human experience.”
“The key is to acknowledge when you make a mistake, learn from it and move on — to understand that failure and mistakes are opportunities for learning, feedback and even creativity,” contributor Dede Henley wrote.
This is exactly my point. Feel free to disagree, but things probably happen for a reason. Things may not always go our way — although selfishly, it would be nice if they did — and we’re bound to have silly slip-ups here and there.
So what? Own it. Take ownership. Laugh it off if it’s something truly silly. Think of that famous Nick Young, also known as “Swaggy P,” jump shot when he celebrated too early and paid the price.
Sure, it may suck. But it already happened, and guess what? The world is still spinning. We’re still going about our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to remember mistakes that were made in the past so you don’t repeat them. But don’t ever think to yourself, “Man, I wish I could go back and do that differently.”
Just be better next time.
