Surely I Must Be Learning From My Mistakes

I believe Einstein once said, ‘a person who never made a mistake never tried something new’. I find quotes like these inspirational because I make many mistakes. I like to think that perhaps I am trying lots of new things. But if I am honest, sometimes it takes making the same mistake more than once for me to change or do the right thing. There’s another saying often attributed to Einstein: “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I know mistakes are part of the growth process for all of us. They make us better. Right?

Years ago, I bought a futon couch, sight unseen. I believed an acquaintance who said it was “high quality”. The high-quality turned out to be a hand-stuffed futon with big lumps. It cost me a fortune then, because it was “hand-made”. It was uncomfortable the moment I sat in it and stayed that way until I paid to have it removed. Disaster.

Last year, we bought a sofa that looked wonderful online. Nice color. Sleek side arms. The measurements seemed to fit nicely in our small office area. The price seemed a little high, but perhaps everything was costing more. I had a nagging thought in the back of my head about buying something so costly without seeing it, but I didn’t listen. Four weeks went by, and the sleeper sofa bed was delivered. We paid extra to have it sent not only to our home but also brought into the office by the delivery guy. I couldn’t wait to see it. We cleaned. Moved everything around for easy setup. Our window was noon to 5:00 p.m. The delivery guy came at 4:55 p.m. (Don’t you love waiting around?)

“Excuse me?” I said to the deliveryman. “We paid extra to have the sofa set up inside our home.”

The heavyset man shook his head. “I don’t have a record of that.”

We argued. Finally, he sighed. “Look, I’ll ask another driver if he can swing by here and help us unload and set it up.”

“How long will that be?” I asked.

He looked at his phone and sighed again. “About twenty minutes from now.”

He seemed miffed that he might be late to his next appointment or perhaps getting home on time. “Sorry. But we really need this done right.”

The other driver came, and they brought in the sofa, which was in cardboard boxes. That should have been my first clue. Something loosened in my memory box— remember that futon couch?

Even though this sofa was in boxes, surely, it would look like the online photos. It was a bit difficult to set up and heavier than I anticipated, and the couch seemed a little low. Well, maybe, more than a little. I tested the comfort level. It was like sitting on a piece of plywood. I checked the boxes. Were there more cushions? Long story short: no, there were not. The sofa bed turned out to be a fiasco, and worse, there was no return policy. There I was, looking at a couple of thousand down the drain. Lesson learned. Again.

My most recent blunder is small compared to some of my bigger slip-ups, but it still stung. Nipped me at the corner of my heart. Fifty pages gone. Three months of work in virtual heaven. I knew I needed to save it to the cloud. I knew but didn’t. Instead, after opening a few Google searches, three documents, several photos, and my email accounts, I checked the time. I was running late for an appointment. I quickly exited and deleted several things, including permanently deleting that writing file. I didn’t know it then, but I certainly did later.  “No, no, no-o-o!” … I’d like to tell you it was the first time I’d done such a thing. It wasn’t.

It’s one thing to learn from mistakes that are about money or things. It’s a whole other learning experience when deep regret impacts self-worth, relationships, betrayals, or major career failures. I’ve had a few of those, and trust me, they were painful.

Emotional pain from mistakes activates the same part of the brain as physical injury, making it feel intensely real. The terrible feeling comes when we realize we’re wrong –the brain’s way of signaling “Danger! Do not do this!” The more painful the mistake is, the more it imprints on our brains.

In every one of these moments, there was a small voice—not loud enough to stop me, but persistent enough to remember afterward. Maybe that voice is how we grow: not by getting it right the first time, but by noticing sooner, listening longer, and choosing differently next time.

“Forget the mistake. Remember the lesson.” Anonymous

Enjoy the Passage of Time.

Sharon

© 2026. Sharon Kreider. All Rights Reserved.