Some people want to have a perfect life. They worry about doing everything exactly right. They diligently strive to get the best results. If only they knew the truth: life is better with mistakes.
Perfect Isn’t
Some people aren’t happy unless everything goes exactly according to plan. Sadly, this means they are never happy, because life has its own plans.
Imagine living your life based on how a wild animal acted. If it spent its day by a pond you were happy; if it were anywhere else, you were upset. Basing your hopes on the whims of a wild animal is going to bring a lot of unhappiness.
Life is a wild animal. You can coax it to do certain things, but at the end of the day it will do what it wants to do. Deciding to enjoy life as it is will bring you to a better place.
Mistakes will happen in life; you can’t control them. The sooner you accept that life is better with mistakes, the happier you will be.
Happy Accidents
One of the most iconic TV characters ever is the Joy of Painting host Bob Ross. He brought a lot of joy to a lot of people, and decades after his passing still does. After all, who doesn’t like Bob Ross?
One of his famous sayings was “we don’t make mistakes; we have happy accidents”.
See, Bob Ross realized something: when you do something you didn’t plan on in a painting, it’s not a problem. You can just find a way to make that an exciting new part of the painting. In fact he did a special episode to show how to take a completely ruined painting and make it into something amazing.
Bob Ross knew something about life that he brought into his paintings: life is better with mistakes. Life is better with happy accidents. You simply have to take what comes and make it into something exciting.
Life Is Better with Mistakes
We all want life to go a certain way. We plan. We set goals. We strive to achieve great things.
But for all our effort, life will often go in a different direction. We can control ourselves, but we can’t control what life will throw at us. When we try to control life we simply become upset and angry when it doesn’t go our way.
Instead of trying to live life perfectly, just focus on living life. Make your plans. Set your goals. And when life throws on a paint stroke you didn’t expect, adjust to the happy accident and make it part of the beautiful tapestry that’s unfolding.
Life is better with mistakes. Don’t avoid them. Simply live your life and embrace them. You never know what wonderful things will come from your happy accidents.
