^{Learn from your mistakes - designed with Canva}

As today is the last day of SEC 10 and I could only choose one topic, I had to play "eeny meeny miny moe."
Oh yes, by now you must have guessed where the "moe" fell. Yes, on "You can also learn from mistakes."

In the brief of the contest we are asked to share our best experiences, life lessons, what our opinions are about learning from mistakes, and advice we can share with those who believe mistakes are failures.

Gosh! I had to really think about this one, and no, I don’t have Alzheimer’s. It is just that as you grow older in life the mistakes you’ve made along your journey are no longer important. It is like a mother giving birth to a child. Once that baby is placed in her arms, the pain is forgotten.

Let me start by sharing a "story" from when my children were still kids.

From a very young age it was important for me to teach my children about the lessons of life. As my husband was English the kids attended English schools and had English friends. We were living in a town in the country side that had a big Portuguese community.
One day my daughter came home after visiting one of her friends. She wanted to know what it meant when you say you were betting on the horses. I decided that this would be a nice lesson for them to learn.

The next school holiday I dressed them up, and off we went to the big city and the nearest race track. When we got there I gave them each a few South African Rand (money) to learn what it was like to bet on the horses. As they were too young to place their bets I had to run in between the bookies and the track all the time. They were playing in today's term: 1 Steem on a win, 2 Steem on a place, etc. Pretty soon the bookies saw what was happening and told us that it was okay, they would allow them to make their bets by themselves.

I found myself a nice spot on the pavilion from where I could watch the two now doing the running and the shouting all by themselves.

At the end of the day, after ten races, they were dead tired.

As we were driving back home I asked them, "So, what did you learn today?"
My son answered that he doesn’t think that betting is for him while my daughter answered, "Never bet on horse No. 7!"

I could not help but burst out laughing. It was for sure not the answer I was expecting to hear. I wanted them to learn valuable lessons like;

• Betting is not easy money
• Betting is not going to make you rich
• Betting is addictive
• You can lose all your money in a jiffy
• It is not always good to listen to other people and
• Stop when you are on the losing end

Looking back at it now it makes me wonder. How much did my children learn from the mistakes they made on that day? My son is a successful surgeon, and my daughter is the best wife, mommy, and teacher to little children there can be.

I’ve read numerous posts in the last week, and one thing each one of them had in common was the fact that all humans make mistakes. I agree 100% with these users.

I’ve made numerous mistakes in my life. Some were small, and others were not so small. As I said at the beginning of the post these mistakes no longer matter to me. I’ve made them, and I’ve moved on. For me, mistakes are those life lessons referred to in the brief of this contest.

I gladly share 5 of my experiences and the lessons that can be learned from them in the hope that someone can benefit from them.

1. I studied law, but I never completed my articles. This was a mistake – I should have trusted and believed in myself.

2. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I refrained from telling my family. This was a mistake – I should have known that I am never alone. There is always someone who cares.

3. When I carried on with a business in which I was losing money. This was a mistake – I should have stopped wasting my time and energy on something I knew was doomed to fail.

4. I never allowed myself to live my dreams. One was to obtain my helicopter pilot license. This was a mistake – Life is precious and unfortunately, we don’t have endless time on Mother Earth.

5. I trusted too easily, and in the process, I never got the remuneration due to me for consulting work done for a big corporate company. This was a mistake – Don’t trust anybody, get it in writing, and when you do, check the small print.

There is always something to be learned from our mistakes. What I can tell you is that it is darn hard to do so. People don’t like to make mistakes and don’t like to fail at tasks which makes the lessons so much harder.

I do believe that if you succeed in learning from your mistakes, they are the legends of yesterday. They are also the opportunities awaiting you to make you a better person and put you on the road to success.

⦿ My advice for when you make those mistakes;
⦿ You have the right to be helped
⦿ Look for the opportunity
⦿ Don’t aim too high
⦿ Work with people who are successful, those who have made mistakes and learned from them
⦿ Don’t judge yourself when you fail
⦿ Watch and learn from the mistakes that other people, especially those successful ones, make
⦿ Get used to making mistakes
⦿ You will make mistakes until the day you no longer breathe
⦿ Learn to bet on your own mistakes
⦿ Lastly, make a mistake, learn and forget, make a mistake, learn and forget. Just don’t give up.

"Let all your regrets and mistakes become your sails and your rudders, and not your anchors" ― Sotero M Lopez II

I invite: @alee75 @nexcis @solperez

CC: @aaliarubab @irawandedy

Account summary:
Club100
Transfer to vesting: 1,815.177 STEEM
Normal transfer: 41 STEEM (Contest prizes and charity)

^{Vote @pennsif.witness for growth across the Steemit platform through robust communication at all levels and targeted high yield developments with the resources available.}

^{Vote here}