writing for self-discovery

We’re teetering on the edge of 2019.

The final week.

The end.

I went into this year filled with optimism. Supercharged with excitement. Expecting great things to manifest. They did. I was also faced with opportunities to grow.

I’ll never forget when my youngest went to work for one of the large retailers in our city. She’d been through their intensive training program and mentioned something another trainee had done. “Well, that was a mistake,” I said.

“No, Mom.,” she corrected me. “We don’t use that word. It wasn’t a mistake, it was an opportunity for growth.”

I still remember feeling gaslighted. My reality shuddered on the brink of a seismic shift. What? No mistakes? Everybody makes mistakes. These millennials don’t want to take responsibility for anything.

But I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind. I’d been dragging the past behind me like a corpse. What if all those muck-ups were opportunities for growth still waiting to be explored? And what if, simply by eliminating a word, I could free myself from the burden of self-blame?

I banned MISTAKE from my vocabulary.

That small act has shifted my relationship with my past and added an abundance of opportunities for growth (OFG) to my life.

Errors, mine and others, have taken on a different perspective. They often trigger much needed change. Perhaps a situation has stagnated. How important it is to shake things up, forge a new path, change the nature of a relationship – or end it. Make different choices.

Eliminating that word is a game-changer.

In a few more days we’ll turn over the calendar and 2020 will be here. Once again I’m optimistic, excited, and expecting great things to happen. If you eliminate MISTAKE from your vocabulary you can go into 2020 like me – incapable of making one. It’s incredibly liberating. And think of all those opportunities for growth that will present themselves.