To Err is Human, To Admit it, Sublime

by Joi on August 16, 2005

I was recently reading a great new blog I found (Okay, my husband found it - Details, cursed details). I was so impressed that I went straight to the About Page. OMG, I love About Pages. I need to hook us up with one here…

The about page on this particular blog included something that you rarely see: the blogger owning up to being human. In the eternal words of Shaggy, “Zoinks!” The terminology he (the young blogger, not Shaggy) used was:

“The opinions written on this site are simply that, opinions. The opinions are not law, they are not engraved in stone or burned in my forehead. If I am wrong about a topic, I will openly come out and say I am wrong…”

I love that! With less than 50 words he let us know that he is open-minded, approachable, flexible, honest, and has an appetite for knowledge. He thinks of his writings as “opinions” rather than the gospel. He’s actually inviting his readers to think for themselves, to generate activity in their minds and share with him the results.

If you’ve been online any time at all, you know why this sort of thing is newsworthy. The average person comes across as defiant and defensive. They believe there are two opinions -theirs and the wrong one. Heaven help the poor person who happens to disagree with something they’ve said. Advice: 9 times out of 10 you’d better run for the hills because you’re about to unleash the hounds of hell.

LifeHut.org seems to be refreshingly different - and for that reason I’m linking them FOR you and recommending them TO you.

Admitting Error clears the Score
And proves you Wiser than before.–Arthur Guiterman

The About Page comments got me thinking about how cool….make that how COOL it is when people can admit they’ve made a mistake. I love when somone up and says, “I messed up big time!” To me it proves they’re cut from the rarest of human cloth - the kind that will be forever learning and growing every day of their life.

By contrast, the individual who never owns up to mistakes has stopped growing. Their growth is stunted and so is their outlook.

“The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.” -John Maxwell

Mistakes happen. That’s why they make erasers and delete keys. To make a mistake shows only one thing, that you are DOING something rather than just WATCHING others.

Watchers don’t make the mistakes but, then again, they don’t accomplish anything either. Doers are the ones who have their share of mistakes, and the best of this crop is the one who owns up to and learns from their mistakes.

“If I ran a school, I’d give the average grade to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them.” -R. Buckminster Fuller

Make each moment count double,
Joi

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