Making mistakes is a natural and integral part of the learning process. For example, as caregivers to babies and children, we encourage mistakes as they learn to walk, talk, read, and tie shoelaces. Watching them fall down, struggle with pronunciation, and get their fingers tangled in the laces become special memories that build the child’s self-confidence and capacity to learn via mistakes. However, as children grow up, their mistakes are not always viewed in a positive way - including in the school system, where mistakes are often penalized instead of promoted. By the time the children grow into young adults and attend university, some of them equate “mistakes” with “failure” instead of "learning opportunities". They may be too worried about making mistakes to engage with the learning process in emotionally healthy ways.
As adults, we come to understand that engaging in the process of learning is more important - and more satisfying - than focusing on doing things perfectly the first time. That process includes mistakes, errors, misconceptions, struggle, practice, and time. We know from our own experiences that when we embrace struggle and see it as an opportunity to grow intellectually, emotionally, socially and/or physically, learning can begin to feel almost magically satisfying.
