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The Joys Of Not Having To Be Careful
In life, there’s better and worse. You can say the wrong thing, you can make the wrong decision, you can trust the wrong person. Even with people you’ve known for years or situations you’ve experienced a thousand times, you might be one mistake away from a catastrophic blunder.
This is something you learn early in life. You learn it when you trip over in the playground or burn your tongue on some hot food or break your mother’s favourite vase.
As you get older you discover new mistakes. You fail an important exam, your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you, you get fired from your job. These early experiences lead to a fear of the consequences of making mistakes, which, ironically, lead to a new kind of mistakes. The worst kind; regrets.
Here we find mistakes like being too afraid to tell the person you love how you feel about them. Being too timid to apply for the job you always wanted, or too proud to admit that you were wrong when it mattered. Mistakes upon mistakes.
I don’t mean to paint too bleak a picture here. Clearly, there’s more to our lives than our fear of making mistakes. The point I’m making is that almost from the very beginning of our lives, we’re aware that mistakes are possible…