A Mistake should not be the end!

Don't shy away from being real.

We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here now with the power to shape your day and your future.

Steve Maraboli

From a very young age, everything is decided for us, what to eat, when to eat, what to wear, whom to speak with, when to sleep, which school to go to, who could be our friends...

We are reminded a million times a day that mistakes would not be tolerated. Everybody around us, parents, siblings, neighbours, teachers, relatives, friends have ingrained it in our head that mistakes would have extreme repercussions.

This makes us scared, anxious, incapable of making any decision for ourselves. We become dependent on external sources to decide for us. Our curiosities have no outlet. Due to which we either become people with low self-confidence or rebellious. We start hiding things, hiding our feelings, our emotions, our desires. We start pretending to be something we are not, just so that we are accepted and appreciated by people around us. We start living a lie.

It is important to learn what is right and wrong and why and not just what is right according to the people around you. Cos, what is right for them is not the only right. It's important to learn to accept people with differing opinions and perspectives. It's important to know that making mistakes and learning from them is absolutely okay. It's okay to not meet everybody's definition of ideal and do things that help you grow and makes you happy.

I am not advocating doing the wrong things. I am advocating freedom of expression, freedom to learn, freedom to love, freedom to choose your career, freedom to live a life on your own terms.

When you do make a mistake, it is very important to

• admit it (most important)

• apologise, apologise profusely (forgiving or punishing is the other person's choice)

• try and understand why it happened and learn from it

• do not ever make the same mistake again

Do not be afraid to try something new, just cos you are afraid of making a mistake. If you fail, you definitely learn from it and if you win, you would thank yourself for trying it :)

This year, let us stop shackling ourselves with unrealistic expectations. These quotes resonated with me

'Making mistakes is better than faking perfection'

'Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life'

Let's start living and not just staying alive!

While you do that remember, imperfections make you unique and it's beautiful being You!