Making Mistakes

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Making Mistakes

Making mistakes is an unavoidable part of life but we all fear it. Instead of expending a ton of energy on trying to avoid making mistakes at all costs, I’ve tried to embrace the fact that the process of messing up, learning, and moving on can be good if it’s handle in a healthy way. After all, it’s better to make a mistake and grow from it than never grow at all, right?

I’ve made some pretty stupid running mistakes. From not packing a shirt for a race (because I assumed they’d give me a race shirt at the expo) to completely forgetting my hydration schedule during a 50k, I try to let all these DOH! moments become lessons to make me a better runner and a better coach.

Running is a safe place for me to get used to this process; trying something, making a mistake, learning from it, and moving on. Unlike other areas of life, I give myself grace in running because…after all…I’m no elite. I’m an average runner who loves what running does for my life. I feel like I can afford to take chances. I can be a “mobile experiment lab” as one of my run buddies puts it.

Learning & Moving On

However, in other areas of life I put a lot more pressure on myself. When I make a mistake, say the wrong thing, drop the ball on a responsibility, it tends to haunt me. Sometimes, instead of learning from it and moving on, I get stuck in a paralyzing guilt/shame cycle.

Why? Because I stupidly think that I’m supposed to have it all figured out…whatever “it all” is. I’m a college educated Christian who owns a home and is about to become a mom. I should be mature. Patient. Know what to say and what not to say. Yet I screw up. A lot.

I have so many expectations that when I fall short, I sometimes find it difficult to learn from my mistakes and MOVE ON. I have to remember that I’m a work in progress, a mobile experiment lab, still becoming who God made me to be.

If I can grant myself some grace with running, I should also be able to do the same as an imperfect human being living under God’s grace. While it’s important to learn from my mistakes, it’s also important not to get weighed down by them. God doesn’t expect perfection. Neither should I. He only expects that I desire to learn and improve and keeping moving toward Him.

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