Is there such a thing as a good mistake in your world? What does it mean, if yes? Or why not, if no?

In my world, there is such a thing as a good mistake, though it’s a much tougher thing now than it used to be! I used to live by the philosophy that no mistake was truly one if you had learned something from it. However, I got myself off the hook too easily with that, so I changed it to no mistake was truly bad if you learned something from it, implying good mistakes may be possible, pending what was learned. That still got me off the hook too easily for my liking, so now I just acknowledge my mistakes, that they were bad to some degree, and give myself possible reprieve of reducing them to partial mistakes only if I learned something good from them, with no mistake is fully one if you learned something from it.

Now, I can’t ever make a good mistake. The only way a mistake could turn out good was if it somehow attained a good outcome by itself, when viewed objectively rather than requiring me to rationalize it judgmentally. For example, I ordered the wrong product, but it turned out to be what I needed as I had done insufficient research in ordering. Those good mistakes are extremely rare because they can only happen with multiple rare events occurring consecutively in the correct order, like winning multiple lotteries in a specific sequence. When those kinds of mistakes happen, I count my blessings, but still see what I can learn from them as I will be highly unlikely to benefit from such good fortunes again for many future mistakes!

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This post is one of 70 quotes I wrote, each with an accompanying essay, in my e-book and paperback Stars I Put in my Sky to Live By, on Amazon or Smashwords (choose your price including free!).