Mistakes were made (but that’s okay)

If you’ve ever played any type of sport, you’d know that taking the blame for your mistakes is a crucial part of skill-building. Understanding where you went wrong is the first step in bettering yourself and in a team setting it’s vital that you understand what went wrong so you can all work together to fix it. This is a skill I’ve built up a lot during my time playing video games competitively in eSports. It soon became a habit I’ve started applying everywhere in my life and I’ve definitely bettered myself in many ways because of this.

It would be hard to simply choose one time when I’ve seen this skill being used because, in such a competitive scene like eSports, it’s important that you’re always trying to better yourself and your teammates if you want to stay on top. Whether you win or lose, you’re going to be analyzing every step you made wondering if it was the right one. You quickly learn that criticism is your best friend and not an attack on your wellbeing and being a sore loser is not going to get you anywhere.

During my time playing competitively, I learned to take every loss as a gift. I recorded every game I played so I could watch them over meticulously. I looked for where I went wrong and how to fix my mistakes for next time. With every game, I became better because of it because rather than sulking about my loss and moving on I learned from my mistakes. Over time, learning from my mistakes became a habit that I would subconsciously start using everywhere else in life.

A good example where I was open about my mistakes is when I was taking Drivers Ed. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I made a mistake while driving that I was quickly aware of when I made it. I made a note to not make it again and carried on. It was so quick and simple I wouldn’t have even noticed I did it. My driving instructor, however, thought I was bashing myself for my mistake and tried to reassure me that it was okay. I thought it was weird that he thought that. It seems so foolish to think I should get tied up over such a small mistake. After all, mistakes are what make us human, right? That specific memory stuck with me all the way until now because it made me realize that we as a society have learned to think of mistakes as bad experiences that only hurt us. That bothers me because, to me, mistakes are what help us learn. That’s how we as a society evolved and became better. Even during the primate age, there were humans trying different methods of starting fires until they finally got it right. Even after they got it right they thought to themselves, “maybe there’s a better way?”. To throw that skill away seems so pointless, but in today’s day and age, it seems not enough people know this.

Learning to learn from my mistakes proved to be one of the most beneficial skills in my life so far. These experiences I’ve had such as my time playing competitively and learning to drive have taught me to cherish the skills I made and to make sure I never forget why I have them. With so much more to understand and learn in the coming future, this skill will always be with me ensuring I take advantage of every opportunity given to me. I just hope others start to understand the value of making mistakes.

“Paris Games Week 2013 | ESWC Pro Gaming Circuit” by James Cao | Studiosushi™ is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

“Paris Games Week 2013 | ESWC Pro Gaming Circuit” by James Cao | Studiosushi™ is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

“Jan. 11 ‘Driver’s Ed'” by MrsTG is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0