Everyone makes mistakes, either physically, verbally, emotionally, or mentally. When we make a mistake, do we deal with it from an optimistic or pessimistic point of view? The optimistic viewpoint would be, “believing and expecting that everything will work out for the best.” If we are pessimistic we might be thinking, “if I admit to this mistake it will ruin everything. We may be worried about getting into trouble, being embarrassed or our reputation ruined. It could be that when we make a mistake we are afraid of our friends and family being angry with us or that they won’t like us anymore.
When someone starts thinking pessimistically when they make a mistake, they may resort to blaming others, denying having made the mistake or even knowing anything about it. They may make up excuses / reasons for the “real reason this happened”.
Ask yourself though – When was the last time you got in trouble for telling the truth? The answer is NEVER. No one gets in trouble for telling the truth. We only get in deeper when we choose to be pessimistic and believe our life is over if we get caught in our mistake and resort to lying or stretching the truth. That is not to say that we will not have to deal with the consequences. But that is natural and only correct. if we spill the milk – the consequence is that we are responsible for cleaning it up. If we talk about someone behind their back, we must deal with the repercussions – but there are no repercussions for telling the truth.
When we make a mistake we need to first admit it (“I made a mistake.”), then apologize (“I am sorry.”), and then fix it. When we handle mistakes in this manner we are showing that we are optimistic and hopeful that everything will work out for the best, and it usually does!