Do Not Be Sorry: Making Mistakes Is A Creative Act

The proverb says: rectifying is a matter for the wise. He who makes a mistake and does not realize it will persevere in his mistake and divert his life from the correct path, which is like saying that it will take him away from himself and from that happiness that was, let’s say, programmed for him.

And the more you make mistakes and the more you deviate, the more difficult it will be to return to what you are, to that place where your expectations (your dreams, your hopes, your projects) can still be fully fulfilled.

That is why it is so important to realize in time : in time that the mistake does not set off irreversible effects, in time to straighten the course of the ship before its hull breaks open against a rock and sinks, in time for it the snowball does not start rolling down the mountainside and ends up unleashing an avalanche that will sweep away everything in its path, in time that the weight is still bearable and does not crush you.

And in time for something even more important: to reverse an action with a negative sign into something positive. Because rectifying should not be so much, if the neologism may be allowed, to be wrong as to transform mistakes into successes.

How to win from mistakes

To straighten or put back straight what has been twisted, which is what the etymology of this verb of Latin origin suggests, it is not advisable to force what has been twisted : a love, a professional vocation, the route on a trip, the ingredients of a recipe. Because then it could break or be completely poisoned.

What is convenient is to seduce him, redirect him, make him compatible with our existential goals, convince him to return to the center of who we are.

Rectify creatively

He who rectifies in time is as if he had never been wrong or, better still, as if his mistakes had helped him to give more meaning and depth to his life.

To live is to go wrong in a creative way, in favor of one’s own interests, in secret synchronicity with what one really is, resuming ties with the rest of the beings as those knots are loosened or become too hardened from respect and compassion, redefining the details of our relationship with the world.

We still have to learn that rectifying is also an act of love, perhaps one of the least prestigious (especially if we compare it with those others that orbit around verbs such as “wish”, “want”, “share” or, of course, ” love “) but, of course, one of the most luminous, effective and long-lasting. That is what makes one wise, that is what the saying that opened these reflections was referring to.

And it is that we can rectify in many ways before things get worse:

• A poorly made sum can be rectified before one gets angry at the shopkeeper (or the shopkeeper at you).
• Some words unsavory or unfortunate can be rectified before they cause eternal fights or feuds.
• An inaccurate calculation can be rectified before the structure of the bridge or the building it is intended to serve is constructed.
• An erroneous assertion can be rectified before it clouds the syllogisms of a philosophical treatise.
• A badly taken path can be rectified before it takes us to a city too far from the one we were going to (and we are late or never for a job, a personal appointment or a concert).
• A hasty sentimental decision can be rectified before it deviates and overshadows our lives.

Time is your ally

Almost everything we do half or badly we have time to rectify it because, contrary to its fame, time does not conspire against us but is one of our best allies.

Time is the “rectifier” par excellence, our most effective helper when it comes to putting things (and among those things, ourselves) back in their place by nature.

To rectify in time, then, does not require more than attention from us, to ensure the proper functioning of who we are, discernment, clarity of ideas and emotions, sense of justice and a minimum of inner freedom : the qualities of that wise man who he has been accompanying us along these lines and that we can all, with humility and patience, become.

Don’t give up on common sense

Time and common sense, one of whose tasks is to guide us on the paths of existence. Common sense puts us in tune with our successes and our mistakes so that we can make good use of the former and rectify without serious consequences when the latter occur.

Common sense is, in fact, who tells what we are how we should behave so as not to get away from what we are, allowing us, therefore, to rectify when it still makes sense to do so.

Common sense and time are what make the verb “rectify” a verb that humanizes and protects, a luminous and necessary verb, a verb that we should always be very aware of.

A factor of happiness

In chemistry “rectify” is to purify a liquid. In geometry it means determining the length of a curved line. And in mechanics it is used when you have to get an engine ready. Complex operations that aim at something simple: to use the necessary instruments to make things work or serve some possible and luminous purpose. Rectifying is a way of understanding with reality and with oneself: a hidden key to happiness.